Comparative control of soybean aphid by three parasitoid wasps

Since its introduction in North America in 2000, the soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, has become host to a growing assemblage of parasitoids. Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson) is a native braconid which parasitizes soybean aphid; Aphelinus glycinis Hopper and Wooley, an east Asian aphelinid, has been released as a biocontrol agent of soybean aphid since USDA approval in 2013; Aphelinus certus Yasnosh was considered too polyphagous for release but since its apparent accidental introduction in 2007 has spread from southern Ontario throughout the soybean producing region. In caged experiments we compared the control of soybean aphid by combinations of these parasitoids, showing that the specialist A. glycinis successfully competed for several generations with its generalist congeneric A. certus.