Leptocybe invasa

Kim, Il-Kwon, Mendel, Zvi, Protasov, Alexey, Blumberg, Daniel & Salle, John La, 2008, Taxonomy, biology, and efficacy of two Australian parasitoids of the eucalyptus gall wasp, Leptocybe invasa Fisher & La Salle (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae: Tetrastichinae), Zootaxa 1910, pp. 1-20 : 17

Efficacy of Leptocybe invasa parasitoids

Release and recovery of S. kryceri and Q. mendeli in E. camaldulensis stands

Adult wasps of the two species that had been collected from the emergence boxes during 2–3 days were allowed to feed on honey and water solution, and were released on the next day in three sites planted with E. camaldulensis: Bet Dagan, Segula (Coastal Plain) and Nir David (Bet Shean Valley). Information about the release number and the sample size for the recovery is presented in Table 3 .

* From each gall 3– 12 L. invasa may emerge

The percentages of parasitism inflicted by the two studied parasitoids, as related to the galling stage, are presented in Tables 1 , 2 . These percentages are relatively high (52 and 73% for S. kryceri and Q. mendeli respectively), considering the fact that the 10 female L. invasa and the two female wasps were allowed to oviposit for 24 h. In our tests females of S. kryceri and Q. mendeli successfully parasitized approximately 2.2 and 2.5 gall units per day, respectively.

A total of about 210 S. kryceri adults (~60% females), and about 670 Q. mendeli adults (all females), were liberated in three sites in the Coastal Plain and the Bet Shean Valley (Table 4). The first parasitoids were recovered 4 months after release. Galling material was sampled near the release spots in October 2007, and totals of 99 individuals of S. kryceri and 36 individuals of Q. mendeli were recovered from all three sites, suggesting that both species were acclimatized in Israel.

Tables

TABLE 3. Information on the release and the recovery of two parasitoids of L. invasa at three locations in Israel. Establishment of parasitoid populations was assessed between early March 2007 and early May 2008.

Location	Parasitoid spe- cies	Release		Recovery
		Parasitoid libera- tion date	Number of released parasitoids	Total number of galls in the sam- ple*	Number of recovered parasitoids
Bet-Dagan	S. kryceri	20 Nov. 2007	~ 40	190	52
	Q. mendeli		~ 40		10
Segula	S. kryceri	25 Oct. 2007	42	210	10
	Q. mendeli		81		8
Nir David	S. kryceri	17 Sep. to 12 Nov. 2007	130	290	37
	Q. mendeli		550		18