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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Newark, Delaware » Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #343684
Research Project: Biological Control of Invasive Wood-Boring Insect Pests such as Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Longhorned Beetle

Location: Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit

Title: Two new species of Oobius Trjapitzin (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) and their phylogenetic relationship with other congeners from Northeastern Asia

Author
item YAO, YAN-XIA - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item Duan, Jian
item Mottern, Jason
item WANG, XIAO-YI - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item YANG, ZHONG-QI - Chinese Academy Of Forestry
item BAUER, LEAH - Us Forest Service (FS)

Submitted to: The Canadian Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/9/2018
Publication Date: 4/19/2018
Citation: Yao, Y., Duan, J.J., Mottern, J.L., Wang, X., Yang, Z., Bauer, L.S. 2018. Two new species of Oobius Trjapitzin (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) and their phylogenetic relationship with other congeners from Northeastern Asia. The Canadian Entomologist. 150:303-316. https://doi.org/10.4039/tce.2018.17.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4039/tce.2018.17

Interpretive Summary: Exotic wood-boring insects such as emerald ash borer (EAB) can become serious invasive tree pests when accidentally introduced to new regions or areas. Discovery of new natural enemies in the pests’ native range can greatly enhance the potential for biological control of these invasive or potentially invasive pests in the U.S. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, USDA ARS and US Forest Service described two new species of parasitoids collected from the eggs of a wood-boring beetle (Agrilus fleischeri) infesting poplar trees in northeastern China where EAB also occurs. These new species (Oobius wankenobius and O. fleischeri) also attack EAB eggs in the laboratory and are additional agents for potential introduction to the U.S. for biological control of EAB.

Technical Abstract: Two new species of egg parasitoids, Oobius wankenobius Yao & Mottern n.sp. and O. fleischeri Yao & Duan n.sp. (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) are described from eggs of Agrilus fleischeri Obenberger (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a phloem-feeding woodborer of poplar (Populus spp.) in northeastern China. These two species can be distinguished morphologically, as O. fleischeri has 5-segmented tarsi and O. wankenobius has four-segmented tarsi. Although O. wankenobius is morphologically similar to its sympatric congener O. agrili Zhang & Huang, an important natural enemy of the invasive emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmare, molecular phylogenetics and morphological data indicate that they are distinct species. Phylogenetic relationships among the new species and other closely related species are also inferred by using DNA sequence data from several ribosomal and mitochondria genes. In addition, we expand the known distribution of Oobius primorskyensis Yao & Duan to include the Republic of Korea.