[MAIPC] Spotted Lantern Fly

[Ruth Douglas]

Saw a brief article in Science magazine reporting on an article in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)with the heading,
"Alien defeated by native fungi" Here is the brief note:, " Within the past
4 years, Lycorma delicatula, an Asian planthopper, has become an invasive
pest in the Eastern U.S. It can feed on many woody and ornamental plant
species and thus poses a direct threat to agriculture. This insect can reach
high densities, perhaps because it has escaped its natural parasites and
pathogens. However, in late 2018, Clifton et al. spotted a mass die-off of
the insect. They found that before they were able to lay eggs, the
planthoppers were attacked by two species of local fungi,. Beauveria
bassiana and Batkoa major It remains to be seen whether the fungi will be
able to keep the insect populations below damage thresholds, whether they
also affect native insects as the environment becomes laden with fungal
spores, or whether they trigger boom-and-bust cycles of the pest." PNAS
U.S.A. 10.1073/pnas.1903579116 (2019)  

 

Apologies if this has already been sent out.

 

Ruth Douglas

Charlottesville, VA

VA Native Plant Society

Blue Ridge PRISM

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.maipc.org/pipermail/maipc-maipc.org/attachments/20190702/a6b18810/attachment.html>