Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY
Volume 49, Issue 4, Pages 823-828Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.1093/ee/nvaa049
Keywords
resource partitioning; biological control; temporal partitioning
Categories
Funding
- USDA Forest Service
- Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Initiative
- Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
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Two species of silver fly, Leucopis argenticollis (Zetterstedt) and Leucopis piniperda (Malloch) (Diptera: Chamaemyiidae), from the Pacific Northwest region of North America have been identified as potential biological control agents of hemlock woolly adelgid (Hemiptera: Adelgidae: Adelges tsugae Annand) in eastern North America.The two predators are collectively synchronized with A. tsugae development.To determine whether adult emergence of the two species of silver fly are also synchronized with one another, we collected adult Leucopis which emerged from A. tsugae-infested western hemlock [Pinaceae: Tsuga heterophylla (Ref.) Sarg.] from four sites in the Pacific Northwest over a 29-d period. Specimens were collected twice daily in the laboratory and identified to species using DNA barcoding. The study found that more adult Leucopis were collected in the evening than the morning. Additionally, the daily emergences of adults over the 29-d sampling period exhibited sinusoidal-like fluctuations of peak abundance of each species, lending evidence to a pattern of temporal partitioning.This pattern could have logistical implications for their use as biological control agents in eastern North America, namely the need to release both species for maximum efficacy in decreasing A. tsugae populations.
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