Papers are presented focusing on biological control agents and how they are regulated across the EPPO region, how their use can be facilitated and how they may contribute to slowing the spread of invasive pests and mitigating the damage they cause. Three papers deal with Dryocosmus kuriphilus, a...

Pitch canker, caused by the pathogen Fusarium circinatum, is a serious disease of pines, Pinus species. It is a threat to natural and planted pine forests, and to date it has invaded countries across five continents. Pine-feeding insects can play a key role in the epidemiology of the disease, as...

The five-spined bark beetle, Ips grandicollis, is an exotic pest in Australia that preferentially attacks stressed pine trees, including Pinus radiata D. Don, but it can also attack healthy trees. The beetle has been present in Australia for 70 years, feeding principally on logging debris, with...

Huanglongbing (HLB) is an unculturable vascular citrus pathogen transmitted from infected to healthy plants through grafting or by citrus psyllids, Diaphorina citri mainly in Asia and America and Trioza erytreae in Africa. Following the outbreak in the United States and the Caribbean, and also...

A new species of Callimomoides Girault 1926 (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), Callimomoides monochaphagae Yang, sp. n., is described from China. It is a solitary endoparasitoid of eggs of the pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus Hope (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), a serious pest that causes damage to pine...

Planococcus citri (Risso, 1813) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is an important plant virus vector in grapevine crops in Brazil and other countries. The mealybug grows in roots and leaves of the grapes. Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are efficient control agents against insects associated to the...

The objective of this study was to isolate and identify native entomopathogenic fungi from different components of maize agroecosystem, and evaluate their virulence against Tribolium confusum, Rhyzopertha dominica, and Sitophilus zeamais, three insect pest vectors of aflatoxigenic fungi. ...

In September 2009, specimens of Ips sexdentatus were captured using black cross vane traps in an old stand of Pinus halepensis Miller at Dekani in the submediterranean ecological region of Slovenia. Twenty-four per cent of them carried phoretic mites, and six taxa of mites were collected directly...

BACKGROUND: The spread of the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), resulted in the worldwide destabilization of established integrated pest management programs for many crops. Efforts to control the pest and the thrips-vectored tospoviruses with...

The diversity of thrips in east Africa is quiet obscure. Climatic changes, extensive commodity exchanges and urban influences, however, lead to significant shifting of this diversity of thrips. Invasive, adaptive and highly reproductive thrips species impact significantly on agricultural production ...