Potential New Associations of North American Parasitoids With the Invasive Asian Longhorned Beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) for Biological Control.

Abstract

The Asian longhorned beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), is a polyphagous wood-boring insect native to Asia. Since it invaded North America in the 1990s, the beetle has been continuously targeted by quarantines and eradication programs in the United States and Canada. We examined the potential for development of new species-associations between A. glabripennis and hymenopteran parasitoids collected from cerambycids and other wood-boring insects infesting red maple (Acer rubrum L.) trees in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Results of our study showed that five groups of braconid parasitoids (Ontsira mellipes Ashmead, Rhoptrocentrus piceus Marsh, Spathius laflammei Provancher, Heterospilus spp., and Atanycolus spp.) successfully attacked early instars of A. glabripennis larvae infesting red maple logs and produced both male and female progenies. One species, O. mellipes, was continuously reared on A. glabripennis larvae inserted inside small red maple sticks for over 50 generations, and produced female-biased progeny (∼6:1 female to male ratio) at each generation. Continuous rearing of O. mellipes on A. glabripennis larvae did not significantly increase the parasitism and mean number of progeny produced per parasitized host. Together, these findings demonstrate that some North American parasitoids may be able to develop new associations with A. glabripennis and thus should be further studied under semifield or field conditions for possible use in biocontrol.