Thousand cankers disease of Juglans (walnut) and Pterocarya (wingnut) spp. (Fagales: Juglandaceae) is caused by the fungal pathogen Geosmithia morbida Kolarík, Freeland, Utley, and Tisserat (Hypocreales: Bionectriaceae) and bark beetle pest/vector, Pityophthorus juglandis Blackman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). To further the development of biological management strategies for thousand cankers disease, we assessed the ability of...

Prickly acacia ( Vachellia nilotica subsp. indica (Benth.) Kyal. & Boatwr.; Fabales: Fabaceae) is a Weed of National Significance and a target for biological control in Australia. Currently there are no effective biological control agents for the weed in Australia. Based on genetic and climate matching, a gall thrips ( Acaciothrips ebneri Karny; Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) inducing rosette galls resulting in shoot tip dieba...

The pepper weevil Anthonomus eugenii (Cano) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an economically important pest of both field and greenhouse pepper crops, Capsicum annuum Linnaeus (Solanaceae) in North America. Among its natural enemies is the parasitoid wasp Jaliscoa (= Catolaccus ) hunteri (Crawford) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), whose potential control of A. eugenii appears promising but is currently unclear. We conducted controll...

Host specificity is a key criterion for the implementation of any biological control program. In parasitoid wasps, host specificity is mediated by their response to chemical cues directly and indirectly associated with their hosts during foraging. Although intraspecific variation in foraging behaviour is documented, it is rarely integrated into risk assessment studies of potential biological control agents, as is the case for...

Adult parasitoids are well known to feed on sugar-rich resources such as floral nectar. Recently, an increasing body of evidence has shown that nectar is ubiquitously colonized by microorganisms and, as a consequence, microbial metabolic activity can affect several traits of floral nectar. Yet, how the fermentation of nectar by yeasts impacts the olfactory responses and performance of parasitoids is largely understudied, espec...

Eldana saccharina Walker is a problematic sugarcane stalk borer pest in South Africa. Twenty-eight sugarcane genotypes ( Saccharum spp. hybrids) and seven different species of host plants of E. saccharina were surveyed for the presence of endophytic Beauveria bassiana sensu lato ( s.l. ). Collectively, 326 plant samples (roots, stems, or leaves) were collected from five locations in sugarcane-producing areas (KwaZulu-Natal; So...