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Funded Project

Funding Program: IPM Enhancement Grants

Project Title: Genetic structure of cotton stink bug parasitoids associated with different host plant species

Project Director (PD): Raul Francisco Medina [1]

Lead State: TX Lead Organization: Texas AgriLife Research

Undesignated Funding: $29,946

Start Date: May-01-2013 End Date: Apr-30-2014

Pests Involved: Cotton Sucking Bugs (Acrosternum hilare, Euschistu

Site/Commodity: Texas/Cotton

Area of Emphasis: Biological Control

Summary: Cotton is an important crop in the southern region, annually generating about $6.5 billion worth of lint alone. Five to six million acres of cotton are planted annually in Texas. Cotton production has undergone a fundamental shift with the use of transgenic cotton varieties and boll weevil eradication. These changes have resulted in an upsurge of secondary pests such as stink bugs. In 2006, for example, over 2.5 million acres of cotton were infested by stink bugs, which destroyed almost 200,000 bales. Currently, chemical control is the primary option to control stink bugs. Because pesticide reduction is essential to conserve communities of natural enemies and to limit environmental pollution, research aimed to implement biological control in stink bug IPM is extremely important. The proposed project will: 1) Assess the parasitoid complex associated with three stink bug species (Acrosternum hilare, Euschistus servus, Chlorochroa ligata) on different host-plant species to identify naturally occurring biological control and to quantify variation in parasitoid attack on different host plants, and 2) Test for host-associated genetic differentiation in the most common parasitoid in each of the three sucking bugs studied. Completion of the proposed work will contribute to minimize insecticide use and will strengthen biological control providing some of the elements needed to develop an effective IPM program against the cotton-sucking bugs studied. Objectives: Objective 1: Study the parasitoid complex associated with three stink bug species to assess its impact in terms of biological control and to quantify variation in parasitoid attack in sucking bugs associated with different host-plant species. Output: Egg and adult parasitoids are important sources of mortality of stink bug pests. In this research we will assess parasitoid species composition and species relative abundance in cotton and in the three of the most common alternative hosts of the stink bugs studied. We will test if parasitization levels are different on different host-plant species. Such information is crucial to include biological control in IPM strategies against cotton sucking bugs Objective 2: Test for host-associated genetic differentiation in each of three sucking bug parasitoids. Output: Determining if there is HAD in parasitoids has several practical implications including verification of strains, biotypes, or host races within parasitoid species. Understanding if HAD is a common phenomenon in natural enemies is relevant for improving natural enemies selection and release efforts so more efficient biological control agents can be deployed.

Final Report:

Other Products / Outputs *=undergraduate student working at my laboratory Lopez*, P., Cusumano, A., Antwi, J. Medina, R.F. Variation in efficiency and genetic composition of stink bug parasitoids ovipositing in three insect-hosts on three host-plants. Entomological Society of America National Meeting, Austin, Texas. Poster Presentation. November 2013

Non-technical summary and Results Unfortunately, due to the delay in the renewal of the Southern Region IPM Center Master grant, the Southern Region IPM Center placed the funds in my account late in the season (several weeks after the proposed started date for this project). Thus, although we worked really hard to collect the sting bugs needed to establish our colonies and place sentinel eggs out we failed to find parasitoids in enough numbers to complete the objectives of the grant to the forced late start of our project. We however, managed to train an undergraduate student on stinkbug rearing techniques. The undergraduate student placed sentinel stink bug egg masses in the field late in the summer. Unfortunately, none of the parasitoids we were targeting were found that late. We would like to repeat this study at the right time and at all locations proposed.

Target audience Our project was designed to impact the scientific community with at leas one peer-review publication in a scientific journal and by the dissemination of results to growers. Unfortunately we could not get the data we were planning to get. We carried on the experiments and stink bug rearings but the egg masses we obtained and deployed in the field were placed there too late in the season due to the tardiness at which funds were placed in our account.

Activities / Events *= Undergraduate student from my laboratory Lopez*, P., Cusumano, A., Antwi, J. Medina, R.F. Variation in efficiency and genetic composition of stink bug parasitoids ovipositing in three insect-hosts on three host-plants. Entomological Society of America National Meeting, Austin, Texas. Poster Presentation. November 2013

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