Assessment of Cyanopterus ninghais as a biological control agent for Monochamus alternatus
Monochamus alternatus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae – EPPO A1 List, vector of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus) is native to northeast Asia and is primarily a pest of pine trees, though it can also attack other plants in the family Pinaceae and Cupressaceae. It has been detected in wood packaging material imported to Europe. In Asia, the pest inflects economic damage in China, Korea and Japan. The ecto-parasitoid, Cyanopterus ninghais (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was first identified in Zhejiang Province. It has 6-7 generations per year and overwinters inside a cocoon in the hosts gallery. Host range no-choice testing was carried out on 22 species (including the target) of wood boring insects. C. ninghais parasitized Spondylis buprestoides (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) and M. saltuarius larvae, where eggs were observed to develop to adults on these two non-target species. None of the other non-target species were attacked. Further choice tests were conducted using the target and the two non-target species which were attacked in the no-choice experiments. C. ninghais showed a preference to M. alternatus larvae compared to S. buprestoides and M. saltuarius. The results suggest that C. ninghais is strongly host specific to M. alternatus and can be used in both argumentative and classical biological control programmes.
Sources
Wang S, Han M, Li H, Xie J, Wei K, Wang X (2024) Testing the host range of Cyanopterus ninghais (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a candidate for the biological control of Monochamus alternatus, the vector of pine wilt disease in Asia. Biological Control 195, 105547.