Foreign exploration for natural enemies of pink hibiscus mealybug, Maconellicoccus hirsutus , was conducted in Australia from 2000 to 2002. In Queensland, the predaceous beetle Cryptolaemus montrouzieri , the predaceous drosophilid fly, Cacoxenus perspicax and the encrytid parasitoid Gyranusoidea indica were recovered. In Western Australia and the Northern Territory a predatory noctuid , Mataeo...

The bacterial symbiont Cardinium (Bacteroidetes) was previously implicated in the thelytokous reproduction of the parasitoid Plagiomerus diaspidis Crawford (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae). Horizontal transmission of the symbiont among the cactus scale Diaspis echinocacti Bouché (Homoptera: Diaspididae) and its hymenopteran parasitoids has been suggested. In this study, the bacteria associated with D....

The maternally transmitted bacterium Wolbachia pipientis is well known for spreading and persisting in insect populations through manipulation of the fitness of its host. Here, we identify three new Wolbachia pipientis strains, wHho, wHho2 and wHho3, infecting Hyposoter horticola, a specialist wasp parasitoid of the Glanville fritillary butterfly. The wHho strain (ST435) infects about 50% of th...

The biology and ecology of Psyllaphycus diaphorinae Hayat, a potential natural enemy of the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), is poorly understood. In April 2013, six P. diaphorinae females collected from Punjab, Pakistan emerged from parasitized Asian citrus psyllid nymphs in quarantine at the University of California, Riverside and were used to initiate co...