The latest news about entomology, brought to you by the Entomological Society of America
With the emerald ash borer beetle devastating ash tree populations throughout the United States, solutions to help fight the insect are critical. Thanks in part to research from the University of Delaware and the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, a host-specific parasitoid wasp from Russia — Spathius galinae — has been approved for release to help […]
Five new wasp species were recently described in the journal Zootaxa. All of them are Braconid wasps, belonging to the genus Cremnops, which belongs to the subfamily Agathidinae. Members of the genus Cremnops occur in terrestrial habitats worldwide and are known to be parasitoids of caterpillars in the families Pyralidae and Crambidae. As is often […]
The lettuce aphid (Nasonovia ribisnigri) is an important pest of lettuce worldwide. Lettuce growers have traditionally used chemicals to control the aphids, but even that can be difficult since the aphids prefer to feed on the lettuce heart leaves. However, there may now be an alternative, according to an article that appears in the journal […]
For the first time, wasps in the genus Spasskia (family: Braconidae) have been found in China, according to an article in the open-access Journal of Insect Science. In addition, a species in that genus which is totally new to science was also discovered. The new species, Spasskia brevicarinata, is very small — male and female […]
This first video was recently submitted to the 2013 ESA YouTube Your Entomology contest by Justin Bredlau, a PhD student at Virginia Commonwealth University. The video shows the life of the parasitic wasp, Cotesia congregata, and two of its hosts. It includes courtship behavior, parasitizing of the host, and larval egression. More information on the […]
