Entomology

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Brown marmorated stink bug

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    Elucidating factors to improve biological control of Halyomorpha halys by egg parasitoids
    (2023) Potter, Madeline Elizabeth; Shrewsbury, Paula M; Burghardt, Karin T; Entomology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Halyomorpha halys Stål (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, is an invasive species from Northeast Asia, which has now spread to 47 USA states and invaded several other countries. In the USA, H. halys is an economically important pest of fruit, vegetable, field, and nut crops, and it feeds on ornamental plants. A sustainable means of controlling this pest is needed. Here I focus on elucidating features from bottom-up forces (alternate host identity, host plant identity, and habitat type) which may influence top-down forces such as parasitism by H. haly’s key natural enemies, Hymenoptera egg parasitoids. Naturally laid eggs of insects were collected from a tree nursery in 2020 and from diverse habitats throughout Maryland in 2021 to investigate H. halys parasitoids’ alternate insect egg hosts, host plant and habitat associations, and which factor(s) (host plant identity and/or host egg identity) are important to egg mass discovery, or to egg parasitism rate. Effects of host insect feeding guild (herbivore vs predator) and host plant origin (native vs non-native) on parasitism were also examined. One new overwintering insect host and four new in season hosts for Anastatus spp., and five new in season hosts for Telenomus cristatus were found. A diverse array of plant species, particularly native Acer and Quercus species, were found to support alternate host insects. Halyomorpha halys related parasitoids were reared from eggs collected in all habitat types. Host egg order and egg feeding guild affected Anastatus spp. egg unit discovery efficiency and egg parasitism rate. Host plant identity and plant origin affected egg unit discovery efficiency and egg parasitism rate by all H. halys parasitoids. These findings support the importance of having a diverse community of alternate prey and informed plant selections to support parasitoids and their biological control of H. halys and other insect pests.
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    Rapid transcriptome sequencing of an invasive pest, the brown marmorated stink bug Halyomorpha halys
    (Springer Nature, 2014-08-29) Ioannidis, Panagiotis; Lu, Yong; Kumar, Nikhil; Creasy, Todd; Daugherty, Sean; Chibucos, Marcus C; Orvis, Joshua; Shetty, Amol; Ott, Sandra; Flowers, Melissa; Sengamalay, Naomi; Tallon, Luke J; Pick, Leslie; Dunning Hotopp, Julie C
    Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Insecta:Hemiptera;Pentatomidae), commonly known as the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB), is an invasive pest of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, causing economically important damage to a wide range of crops. Native to Asia, BMSB was first observed in Allentown, PA, USA, in 1996, and this pest is now well-established throughout the US mid-Atlantic region and beyond. In addition to the serious threat BMSB poses to agriculture, BMSB has become a nuisance to homeowners, invading home gardens and congregating in large numbers in human-made structures, including homes, to overwinter. Despite its significance as an agricultural pest with limited control options, only 100 bp of BMSB sequence data was available in public databases when this project began. Transcriptome sequencing was undertaken to provide a molecular resource to the research community to inform the development of pest control strategies and to provide molecular data for population genetics studies of BMSB. Using normalized, strand-specific libraries, we sequenced pools of all BMSB life stages on the Illumina HiSeq. Trinity was used to assemble 200,000 putative transcripts in >100,000 components. A novel bioinformatic method that analyzed the strand-specificity of the data reduced this to 53,071 putative transcripts from 18,573 components. By integrating multiple other data types, we narrowed this further to 13,211 representative transcripts. Bacterial endosymbiont genes were identified in this dataset, some of which have a copy number consistent with being lateral gene transfers between endosymbiont genomes and Hemiptera, including ankyrin-repeat related proteins, lysozyme, and mannanase. Such genes and endosymbionts may provide novel targets for BMSB-specific biocontrol. This study demonstrates the utility of strand-specific sequencing in generating shotgun transcriptomes and that rapid sequencing shotgun transcriptomes is possible without the need for extensive inbreeding to generate homozygous lines. Such sequencing can provide a rapid response to pest invasions similar to that already described for disease epidemiology.