| Larra bicolor | |
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| Family: | Latreille, 1802 |
| Genus: | Fabricius, 1793 |
| Binomial name | |
| Larra bicolor (Fabricius, 1804) | |
Larra bicolor is a parasitoid wasp native to South America. It was introduced into Florida as a biological pest control of invasive mole crickets.
Adult females of this species are about 22 mm long, with the males somewhat smaller. The head and thorax are black, with silver markings on the head; the abdomen is red. The wings are variable in color, of a dusky hue.
These wasps feed on nectar as adults, with the shrubby false buttonweed ( Spermacoce verticillata ) preferred. [1] Females hunt mole crickets in the genus Scapteriscus , stinging them on the underside to paralyze them for several minutes. A single egg is deposited between the first and second pairs of legs. The wasp then flies off, and the cricket returns to its burrow. Nymphs and adult crickets are attacked, as long as they are large enough.
Upon hatching, the larva feeds upon its host, eventually killing it. It pupates within 12 to 30 days (depending on temperature), forming a cocoon in the remains of the cricket by gluing sand grains together. The pupal phase may be as short as 50 days, but the pupa may enter diapause in the winter, delaying emergence for months. Adults are solitary and do not form nests or colonies.
Other than the winter diapause mentioned above, no seasonal component to wasp activity is known. Several generations of wasps may occur in a year, one of the factors that allow these wasps to out-reproduce their hosts, an important attribute for a successful biological control agent. [2]
Non-native mole crickets arrived in Puerto Rico, at least as early as the 18th century, probably by flight, [3] and as early as 1899 in the southeastern United States, probably as contaminants of ship ballast. They became serious pests, damaging crops and pasture- and turfgrasses. Although the related L. analis attacks the native northern mole cricket, it does not attack non-native species. In an early example of biological pest control, L. bicolor was introduced into Puerto Rico in 1938, where it became successfully established. This suggested the possibility of its use on the mainland, but failed attempts and the development of chlordane pesticide in the 1940s brought an end to these efforts.
When chlordane use on food crops was banned in 1978, the Florida legislature inaugurated a program at the University of Florida to find alternative controls for pest mole crickets. Budgetary limitations led to a repetition of the Puerto Rico to the mainland effort, but this population, which originated in Brazil, failed to establish itself except in an area around Fort Lauderdale. Research suggested that these wasps were insufficiently cold-tolerant, and a second effort in 1988-89 used wasps from Bolivia. [4] This introduction was much more successful, and the wasps have gradually spread through most of the state [5] and into neighboring states. They remain highly adapted to the non-native species and have not diversified to attack (for instance) the native northern mole cricket. Also, they are not aggressive, and their sting is reported to be mild compared to more familiar wasps. The principal limitation in their use as a biological control agent has been the need to find appropriate nectar sources for the adults. [6] Some other plants, especially Pentas spp., [7] are also found acceptable; nonetheless, provision of suitable plants is necessary.
Apocrita is a suborder of insects in the order Hymenoptera. It includes wasps, bees, and ants, and consists of many families. It contains the most advanced hymenopterans and is distinguished from Symphyta by the narrow "waist" (petiole) formed between the first two segments of the actual abdomen; the first abdominal segment is fused to the thorax, and is called the propodeum. Therefore, it is general practice, when discussing the body of an apocritan in a technical sense, to refer to the mesosoma and metasoma rather than the "thorax" and "abdomen", respectively. The evolution of a constricted waist was an important adaption for the parasitoid lifestyle of the ancestral apocritan, allowing more maneuverability of the female's ovipositor. The ovipositor either extends freely or is retracted, and may be developed into a stinger for both defense and paralyzing prey. Larvae are legless and blind, and either feed inside a host or in a nest cell provisioned by their mothers.
Mole crickets are members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera. Mole crickets are cylindrical-bodied, fossorial insects about 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) long as adults, with small eyes and shovel-like fore limbs highly developed for burrowing. They are present in many parts of the world and where they have arrived in new regions, may become agricultural pests.
Mud dauber is a name commonly applied to a number of wasps from either the family Sphecidae or Crabronidae which build their nests from mud; this excludes members of the family Vespidae, that are instead referred to as "potter wasps". Mud daubers belong to different families and are variable in appearance. Most are long, slender wasps about 1 inch (25 mm) in length. The name refers to the nests that are made by the female wasps, which consist of mud molded into place by the wasp's mandibles. Mud daubers are not normally aggressive, but can become belligerent when threatened. Stings are uncommon.
Anthonomus eugenii is known as the pepper weevil. This beetle feeds and lays eggs on plants in the genus Capsicum and a few species in the genus Solanum. A. eugenii is native to Mexico, however, it is an important pest of Capsicum in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Central America.
Larra, also known as mole cricket wasps or mole cricket hunters, is a genus of wasps that prey on various species of mole crickets. They have gained prominence as integrated pest management agents.
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.
Leptocybe invasa, the blue gum chalcid wasp or eucalyptus gall wasp, is a chalcid wasp which is the only species in the monotypic genus Leptocybe in the subfamily Tetrastichinae, of the family Eulophidae. It is a gall wasp which causes the formation of galls on a number of species of Eucalyptus, it was described in 2004 after galls were found in river red gums in the Mediterranean and Middle East and has since been found to be a widespread species where its host trees are planted. It is indigenous to Australia.
Sam W. Heads is a British palaeontologist, a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, as well as a former Officer and Editor-in-Chief at the Orthopterists' Society.
Gryllotalpa orientalis is a species of mole cricket in the family Gryllotalpidae, commonly known as the oriental mole cricket. It is found in much of Asia and Australasia. At one time, this species was misidentified as G. africana and thought to have a widespread distribution in both Africa and Asia, but in the 1980s, G. orientalis was recognised as a separate species. It is a polyphagous pest, damaging crops by gnawing their roots.
Pheropsophus aequinoctialis is a species of ground beetle from Central and South America that feeds as larvae on the eggs of mole crickets but as an adult is a generalist feeder.
Scapteriscus is a genus of insects in the family Gryllotalpidae, the mole crickets. Members of the genus are called two-clawed mole crickets. They are native to South America. Some species have arrived in other regions, including parts of North America, where some have become invasive and have become established as pests.
Tamarixia radiata, the Asian citrus cyllid parasitoid, is an hymenopteran wasp from the family Eulophidae which was discovered in the 1920s in the area of northwestern India (Punjab), now Pakistan. It is a parasitoid of the Asian citrus psyllid, an economically important pest of citrus crops around the world and a vector for Citrus greening disease.
Steinernema scapterisci, the mole cricket nematode, is a species of nematode in the order Rhabditida. It is a parasite of insects in the order Orthoptera, the grasshoppers, crickets and their allies. Native to southern South America, it was introduced into Florida in the United States in an effort to provide a biological control of pest (Neoscapteriscus) mole crickets.
Ormia depleta, sometimes called the Brazilian red-eyed fly, is a species of fly in the family Tachinidae. It is a parasitoid of mole crickets in the genus Scapteriscus. It is native to South America but has been imported into the United States and elsewhere as a biological pest control agent.
Neoscapteriscus vicinus, the tawny mole cricket, is a species of insect in the mole cricket family, Gryllotalpidae. This species is native to South America and also occurs in the Southern United States, where it arrived as a contaminant of ship's ballast around 1900. Colombian insect taxonomist Oscar Cadena-Castañeda studied specimens of the genus which had been called Scapteriscus, and decided that it included two groups; a smaller group and a larger group that he named Neoscapteriscus in 2015. North American mole cricket taxonomists agreed with his decision and altered Orthoptera Species File Online accordingly.
Scapteriscus borellii, the southern mole cricket, is a species of insect in the family Gryllotalpidae. It is native to South America but is also present in the southern United States where it was introduced around 1900.
Scapteriscus abbreviatus, the short-winged mole cricket, is a species of insect in the mole cricket family, Gryllotalpidae. It is native to South America but has been introduced inadvertently into Florida, in the United States. Unlike other related species, it is unable to fly, nor do the males emit songs in order to attract females.
Anaphes nitens is a species of fairyfly, a chalcid wasp in the family Mymaridae. Native to Australia, it is an egg parasitoid of the gum tree snout beetle, a pest of Eucalyptus trees, and has been used in biological pest control of that species.
Larra anathema is a species of parasitoid wasps belonging to the family Crabronidae. It is the type species of the genus Larra.
Pison spinolae, commonly known as mason wasp, is a solitary wasp of the family Crabronidae, found throughout New Zealand.