Plant-Insect Ecosystems
Section Symposium
Tim Haye
Head Arthropod Biological Control
Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI)
Delémont, Jura, Switzerland
Silvia Moraglio
University of Torino
Torino, Italy
Francesco Tortorici
University of Torino
Torino, Italy
Tara Gariepy
Research Scientist
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
London, Ontario, Canada
Luciana Tavella
University of Torino
Torino, Italy
The Asian egg parasitoid Trissolcus japonicus was identified as the most promising agent for classical biological control of H. halys. Host specificity testing of T. japonicus has been carried out under containment conditions in North America and Europe and overall, these studies came to the very similar conclusions that T. japonicus’ fundamental host range is restricted to the Pentatomoidea, but the parasitoid is capable of successfully parasitizing the eggs of several pentatomids and a few species of scutellerids other than H. halys. Before any laboratory risk assessment studies for T. japonicus had been completed, adventive populations of T. japonicus were detected North America and Europe. These unintentional introduction of T. japonicus provided a unique opportunity to validate retrospectively estimates of fundamental host range with realized (ecological) `post arrival´ host range as it manifested over time.