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Laboratory odour-specificity testing of Cotesia urabae to assess potential risks to non-target species

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Abstract

The larval parasitoid Cotesia urabae Austin and Allen (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is known to be attracted to odours of its target host Uraba lugens Walker (Lepidoptera: Nolidae), host plant (Eucalyptus species), and target plant-host complex. Cotesia urabae females were tested in both a Y-tube and four-arm olfactometer to further investigate these attractions as well as their attraction to three non-target Lepidoptera (two in the family Erebidae and one in the family Geometridae), and their corresponding host plants and plant-host complexes. In a Y-tube olfactometer, wasps were attracted to the odours of the non-target Erebidae larvae when tested on their own and when feeding on their host plants, but not to their non-target host plants alone, suggesting some rare circumstances in the field these non-targets could be attacked by C. urabae. The multiple-comparison bioassay conducted in a four-arm olfactometer indicates that target plant-host complex odours invariably produced the strongest attraction compared with any other of the non-target plant-host complex odours tested. Cotesia urabae females that were given prior exposure and the opportunity to oviposit within either non-target species were not subsequently more attracted to the Erebidae odours, suggesting that associative learning is unlikely to increase non-target attack. Such olfactometer assays could be a very useful addition to the host specificity testing methods able to be conducted within quarantine facilities, prior to the release of candidate biological control agents. We urge other biocontrol scientists to undertake similar assays to assist with non-target risk assessments.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Maria Saavedra and Nicky Kerr who assisted with the rearing of the Cotesia urabae colony, and also to Anne Barrington (Plant and Food Research) and Lindsay McIntyre for supplying non-target species larvae for this research project. This work was partly funded by Scion as part of the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) (http://www.b3nz.org) research collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Gonzalo A. Avila & Gregory I. Holwell

  2. Better Border Biosecurity, New Zealand http://www.b3nz.org

    Gonzalo A. Avila & Toni M. Withers

  3. Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute), Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, 3046, New Zealand

    Toni M. Withers

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  1. Gonzalo A. Avila
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  2. Toni M. Withers
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Correspondence to Gonzalo A. Avila.

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Avila, G.A., Withers, T.M. & Holwell, G.I. Laboratory odour-specificity testing of Cotesia urabae to assess potential risks to non-target species. BioControl 61, 365–377 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-016-9716-5

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