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Prodigal Wasp Gets Second Chance Against the Gypsy Moth
For the first time in 20 years, a tiny Indian wasp named Aleiodes has been released to attack gypsy moth caterpillars in the U.S. When last released--in 1977--the wasps vanished without a trace. But scientists found
a few in 1994, and decided to give them another chance.
The May 17 release of about 1,000 Aleiodes indiscretus wasps (sometimes called Rogas indiscretus) in Pennsylvania marked a renewal of tests by Agricultural Research Service scientists and collaborators. They want to know if the wasps will survive, reproduce and build their populations by preying on gypsy moth caterpillars. Originally from Europe, the moths attack trees in a region from New England to Michigan and south to North Carolina. They are the most destructive insect pest of trees in the Eastern U.S.
The adult Aleiodes is honey colored and about one-quarter inch long. After the female wasp deposits her egg in a caterpillar, a wormlike wasp larva develops. It eats the caterpillar's insides.
Previous Aleiodes releases were made from 1968 to 1977. But scientists found no offspring 1994. Then, ARS entomologists found nine Aleiodes cocoons in Maryland, prompting the agency to give the wasp another try. ARS imported a fresh "starter colony" of wasps last summer, in cooperation with India's Commonwealth Institute of Biocontrol and USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.
Scientists at ARS' Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Laboratory in Newark, Del., has been lab-rearing the insects. Last Saturday, USDA's Forest Service released the first contingent of the wasps in Greene County in southwestern Pennsylvania, in cooperation with Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
By Jim De Quattro (jdequatt@asrr.arsusda.gov)
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