Following the detection of the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), in July of 2000, surveys were initiated to catalog the aphidophaga in southern Wisconsin soybeans. A rich and at times abundant complex of aphid predators exists, yet parasitoids of A. glycines were virtually nonexistent. Aphelinus albipodus (Hayat and Fatima) (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), a parasitoid of A. glycines in the eastern hemisphere, was successfully introduced into North America beginning in 1992 for the biological control of Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia (Mordvilko). A. albipodus recovered from D. noxia hosts in Wyoming, USA were mass-reared and released into three soybean fields in Colombia, Dane, and Racine Counties in southern Wisconsin in 2002. 1000 A. albipodus wasps, released into field cages containing 50,000 soybean aphids, resulted in a mean parasitism rate of 12% within a one week period. Additionally, 40,000 A. albipodus wasps were released into the center of each field every other week from July 2 to August 27. Peak daily parasitoid recoveries in Colombia, Dane, and Racine counties were 15.5, 8.6, and 0.7 parasitized aphids/5-minute search, and were weakly correlated with peak A. glycines densities of 556.3, 201.0 and 86.1 aphids/plant, respectively. Observations from the project's first full year, as well as current and future research efforts, are discussed.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Aphelinidae Aphelinus albipodus
Species 2: Homoptera Aphididae Aphis glycines (soybean aphid)
Keywords: biological control
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