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During the period 2019-2020, parasitoids of invasive oak lace bug ( Corythucha arcuata ) were studied in Bulgaria. Biological material (larvae of C. arcuata ) was collected from European oak ( Quercus robur ) or Austrian oak ( Quercus cerris ) in five localities of the country. Five eulophid specimens (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) were reared from the host larvae: Tamarixia pubescens , Elasmus sp., Minotetrastichus sp., Pnigalio sp. and Sympiesis sp. The impact of the parasitoids on the host number was very low (0.1-0.3%). The present records in Bulgaria are the first documented case of adaptation of native parasitoids to the host in the newly occupied areas in Europe and Asia.

The assemblage of hymenopteran parasitoids associated with the invasive lime leaf miner, Phyllonorycter issikii (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), developing on the small-leaved lime ( Tilia cordata ) was studied in Perm krai and in the Republic of Bashkortostan in 2019. Sixteen species of parasitoids of Ph. issikii were recognized: Diglyphus isaea , Elachertus fenestratus , Hyssopus geniculatus , Pnigalio agraules , P . mediterraneus , Sympiesis dolichogaster , S. gordius , S. sericeicornis , Chrysocharis laomedon , Ch. nephereus , Ch. pentheus , Ch .  pubens , Ch. pubicornis , Ch . submutica , Minotetrastichus frontalis (Eulophidae), and Pholetesor circumscriptus (Braconidae). Three species, Diglyphus isaea , Chrysocharis pubens, and Ch . submutica (Eulophidae), were reported as parasitoids of the lime leaf miner for the first time. The roles the complex of parasitoids played in the mortality of the miner were negligible. The mortality ranged from 1.3 ± 0.3 (Perm) to 23.7 ± 3.3% (village of Tolbazy).

The assemblage of hymenopteran parasitoids associated with the invasive lime leaf miner Phyllonorycter issikii (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), developing on the lime Tilia cordata , was studied in Kurgan Province (Lake Medvezhye) and in the cities of Tobolsk, Omsk, and Novosibirsk during 2018–2019. Twenty-one species of parasitoids of Ph. issikii were recorded: Pteromalus sp. (Pteromalidae), Cirrospilus diallus , Elachertus sp., Hyssopus geniculatus , H. nigritulus , Pnigalio mediterraneus , Pnigalio sp., Sympiesis dolichogaster , S. gordius , S. sericeicornis , Chrysocharis laomedon , Ch. pentheus , Ch. pubicornis , Ch. viridis , Chrysocharis sp., Neochrysocharis formosus , Minotetrastichus frontalis (Eulophidae), Colastes braconius , Apanteles sp., Pholetesor circumscriptus , and Cotesia sp. (Braconidae). Chrysocharis viridis was recorded as a parasitoid of lime leaf miner for the first time. The role of parasitoids in the miner mortality was negligible, the mortality rate ranging from 1.9 ± 0.4% (Novosibirsk) to 23.7 ± 3.3% (Omsk).

The composition and seasonal abundance of hymenopteran parasitoids of Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) was investigated on snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), and squash (Cucurbita pepo L. ‘Enterprise’) from 2010 to 2016 in South Florida in two studies. In the first study (2010–2016), 13 species of parasitoids were collected from the snap bean crop. Opius dissitus Muesebeck (Braconidae) was the most abundant parasitoid throughout the study period from September 2010 to February 2016. Diaulinopsis callichroma Crawford (Eulophidae) was the second most abundant parasitoid on bean in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016. Other parasitoids included Euopius sp. (Braconidae)., Diglyphus begini (Ashmead), D. intermedius (Girault), D. isaea (Walker), Neochrysocharis sp., Closterocerus sp., Chrysocharis sp., Zagrammosoma lineaticeps (Girault), Z. muitilineatum (Ashmead), Pnigalio sp. (all Eulophidae), and Halticoptera sp. (Pteromalidae). In the second study on the comparative abundance of parasitoids in three crops conducted in 2014 and 2016 using bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) arranged in a randomized complete block design, bean attracted more parasitoids than tomato and squash irrespective of parasitoid species and years. This information will help in devising a biocontrol-based integrated program for managing leafminers in beans and other vegetable crops.

The olive moth, Praysoleae (Bernard, 1788) (Lepidoptera: Praydidae) is categorised among the most devastating insect pests of olives, whose anthophagous and carpophagous generations can cause yield loss up to 581 and 846 kg of fruit per ha, respectively. In this study, results of the captured parasitoids in olive tree ( Oleaeuropaea Linnaeus, 1753) orchards, or infested olive plant material in Crete, Greece, is presented. Five of the six identified species captured in trap devices are related to P.oleae , i.e., Chelonuselaeaphilus Silvestri, 1908, Chelonuspellucens (Nees, 1816), Apantelesxanthostigma (Haliday, 1834), Diadegmaarmillatum (Gravenhorst, 1829), and Exochuslentipes Gravenhorst, 1829. The species Eupelmusurozonus Dalman, 1820 and Pnigaliomediterraneus Ferrière & Delucchi, 1957 were reared from infested P.oleae leaves. Chelonuspellucens is reported for the first time from Greece. According to the international literature, 59 hymenopterous and dipterous parasitoid species are associated with P.oleae in Europe.

We studied the parasitoid complex of Bactrocera oleae Rossi (Diptera: Tephritidae) in order to analyse the parasitism response to landscape structure at different spatial extents. Olive fruits were sampled and incubated in the laboratory for insect emergence, thus allowing the calculation of parasitoid emergence rates. A landscape analysis was performed in five concentric buffers, ranging from 0.5 to 2 km diameter around the sampling points. Woodland was chosen as focal class. The percentage of landscape and the splitting index, a measure of fragmentation, were used to quantify landscape composition and configuration, respectively. Significant effects of landscape on parasitism rates were detected. In particular, the percent parasitoid emergence was negatively affected by the splitting index of woodland at a spatial extent ranging from 1 to 2 km. These findings suggest that landscape characteristics are likely to affect parasitoids in well-structured agroecosystems as well. In particular, connectivity at a large scale may favour B. oleae parasitoids more than the abundance of woodland. Potential implications for conservation biological control are discussed.

Rearings from mines in leaves of the perennial terrestrial vine trailing arbutus, Epigaea repens L., in Maryland, Michigan, and New England yielded specimens of the genus Brachys Dejean. Species of this genus in the eastern United States are previously known only as miners in shrubs and trees. Our study describes Brachys howdeni Hespenheide, new species, as well as its mines and biology.

Leaves of durum wheat infested with mines of the cereal leaf miner Syringopais temperatella Lederer (Lepidoptera: Scythridae) were collected from fields in Israel in spring 2016 and 2017. The parasitoids and moths reared from the leaf mines in the lab were identified and counted according to sex. The sex ratios of S. temperatella were 1:0.73 (♀ :♂) in 2016 and 1:0.41 in 2017. A cross-correlation analysis revealed that males appeared three days ahead of females (p<0.05). The following parasitoids were reared: Eulophidae ( Cirrospilus vittatus Walker, Diglyphus chabrias (Walker), D. isaea (Walker), D. sensilis Yefremova, D. pusztensis (Erdős & Novicky), Necremnus tidius (Walker), Neochrysocharis formosus (Westwood), Pnigalio gyamiensis Myartseva & Kurashev, P. pectinicornis Linnaeus), Pteromalidae ( Norbanus sp.) and Braconidae ( Habrobracon stabilis (Wesmail), Apanteles sp.); and Icheumonidae ( Campoplex sp.). In all cases, the parasitoids emerged substantially prior to the mass appearance of the moths. The hatching dynamics of ecto- and endoparasitoids were also asynchronous. Most species of ectoparasitoids hatched three days ahead of the endoparasitoids (p<0.05). Syringopais temperatella recorded on clover revealed a similar dynamics of male appearance ahead of female, with a of female-to-male ratio of 1:0.25, and fewer parasitoid species.

How communities of natural enemies, such as parasitoids, adapt to the range expansion of their hosts or the arrival of a novel invasive host is an important question in invasion biology. Do parasitoids track the expansion of their hosts from their shared native range? Do they locally adapt both behaviorally and physiologically to the arrival of a novel species by shifting hosts? Few studies have addressed those questions, yet they are important to develop efficient methods to manage invasive species. Here we focus on Pnigalio mediterraneus Ferriére and Delucchi (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), an important parasitoid of two major agricultural and ornamental pests, the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae Rossi (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the horse chestnut leafminer Cameraria ohridella Deschka & Dimic (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae). C. ohridella recently invaded Europe starting from the Southern Balkans, whereas B. oleae has been associated since the Quaternary with wild olives in the Mediterranean, where it largely spread after the domestication of cultivated olives. We used two markers, the ribosomal spacer ITS2 and the mitochondrial gene COI. Although the ITS2 dataset provided little variation and no phylogeographic signal, analysis of mtDNA of 188 individuals of P. mediterraneus from 54 European localities allowed us to identify 53 haplotypes. Both nucleotide and haplotype diversity were higher for Mediterranean samples, and from samples reared from B. oleae. The statistical parsimony network identified one haplotype as the most frequent, ancestral and mainly associated with C. ohridella . Our findings suggest that P. mediterraneus locally host switched to C. ohridella from other hosts in the Balkans and later tracked the horse chestnut leafminer invasion over Europe. Therefore both host-tracking and ecological sorting could explain the current distribution of P. mediterraneus haplotypes.

The larval instars of Pnigalio gyamiensis Myartseva and Kurashev are described in detail for the first time. This species is a larval-pupal ectoparasitoid of Chrysoesthia sexguttella (Thunberg) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae), which forms leaf mines in the plant Chenopodium album L. (Caryophyllales: Amaranthaceae). The female of Pnigalio gyamiensis lays a single egg on the skin of the host larva or nearby it, without any significant preference for a particular variant. The presence of long hairs on its body provides the newly-hatched first larval instar with high mobility. Some peculiarities in this parasitoid-host relationship are described.