Trissolcus hyalinipennis Rajmohana & Narendran (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae), a parasitoid of Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae), emerges in North America

Abstract

Trissolcus hyalinipennis Rajmohana & Narendran is an Old World egg parasitoid of Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister). Its potential as a classical biological control agent in the United States has been under evaluation in quarantine facilities since 2014. A survey of resident egg parasitoids using fresh sentinel B. hilaris eggs in Riverside, California, revealed that T. hyalinipennis is present in the wild. Four cards with parasitized eggs were recovered, from which one yielded a single live T. hyalinipennis and two unidentified dead wasps (Scelionidae), and three yielded twenty live Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) and one dead wasp. Subsequently, samples from Burbank, California, collected with a Malaise trap as part of the BioSCAN project, yielded five females of T. hyalinipennis. It is presumed that the introduction of T. hyalinipennis to this area was accidental. Surveys will be continued to evaluate the establishment of T. hyalinipennis as well as the presence of other resident parasitoid species.