Revision of the history of introduction, ecology and behaviour of the parasitoid Ibalia leucospoides (Hymenoptera: Ibaliidae) a natural enemy of the forest pest Sirex noctilio

FISCHBEIN DEBORAH; CORLEY JUAN

Bariloche

Congreso; IUFRO 07.03.05 - 07.03.12 Joint Meeting. A global perspective on the ecology and management of bark and wood boring insects; 2015

INTA-Laboratorio de Ecología de Poblaciones de Insectos

Classical biological control is a key method for managing woodboring insect pests in long-lived crops such as plantation forestry. Characterizing established pest?natural enemy interactions may be useful to uncover patterns and consequently improve the accuracy of our predictions of success in classical biocontrol. This is an important goal in much applied ecological research. In this presentation we review the history of introduction, ecology and behaviour of the parasitoid I. leucospoides, used to manage S. noctilio, one of the most important pests of pine afforestation worldwide. We analyze information retrospectively, choosing an invasion ecology perspective, given the analogy between the main stages involved in classical biological control and the biological invasion processes. We conclude that success in the establishment, a common reason of failure in biocontrol, is not a limiting factor for I. leucospoides. However, a mismatch between the spread capacity of the parasitoid and that of its host could affect control at a regional scale. We also suggest that this natural enemy may be a better regulator than suppressor of the host population. Spatial and temporal refuges of the host population that may favour the local persistence of the interaction probably reduce the degree to which S. noctilio population is suppressed by the parasitoid. We expect that this review contribute to defining selection criteria for classical biological control which may prove especially useful in integrated pest management programmes of invasive forest insects.