The Eggs of an Invasive: Biological Control Adaptation, Parasitoid Orientation, and Gene Manipulation of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, Halyomorpha halys.
Open Access
- Author:
- Peterson, Hillary Morin
- Graduate Program:
- Entomology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 18, 2020
- Committee Members:
- Grzegorz Krawczyk, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Grzegorz Krawczyk, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jared Gregory Ali, Committee Member
Andrew R Deans, Committee Member
Eric Paul Burkhart, Outside Member
Jason Laurence Rasgon, Committee Member
Gary Felton, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Halyomorpha halys
Trissolcus japonicus
Biological Control
Invasive Speceis
Parasitoid
Tree Fruit
Chemical Ecology
CRISPR/Cas9 - Abstract:
- The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) (Stål), is an invasive species in the United States and across the world. It has disrupted agroecosystems and homeowners, and the research which has been conducted to solve these disruptions have led to incredible innovation and collaboration. Studies conducted on H. halys represent an intersection between invasive species, classical and conservation biological control, systematics, taxonomy, integrated pest management, and even genetic approaches. In this dissertation, I conducted multidisciplinary research on H. halys in the laboratory and in commercial orchard settings to expand research knowledge into the basic biology of H. halys and the populations and basic biology of its natural enemies. While significant groundwork has been laid in the study of H. halys biological control, few studies have done so directly in commercial fruit orchards, and much more research is needed to understand where and when biological control agents provide the most effective control of H. halys. I conducted field studies at two commercial fruit orchards designed on utilizing and solving problems in the most current H. halys research, including working to improve detections of parasitoids using different placement methods of H. halys sentinel egg masses and yellow sticky cards, and using recent results of a laboratory predation study of H. halys egg mass to associate H. halys sentinel egg predation with predators detected in the field. My field study results demonstrated differences in H. halys egg mass parasitism due to habitat, method of egg mass deployment or collection, and parasitoid species-specific differences. Parasitoids in the genus Anastatus (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) were found to be the most successful native parasitoid species attacking H. halys eggs, emerging from approximately 1.2% of deployed sentinel and 12% of collected wild eggs. Out of predation syndrome classifications, “incomplete chew” predation was the highest at approximately 15% of sentinel eggs being predated while both detections of predation and captures of predators were highest at the border between the orchards and the woods. Importantly, my field study detected adventive populations of Trissolcus japonicus (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) (Ashmead) in Pennsylvania for the first time, aligning with other studies conducted in surrounding states. T. japonicus is a highly successful co-evolved egg parasitoid of H. halys in Asia. Detection of T. japonicus in Pennsylvania allowed me to rear colonies of the species and further investigate its host-location behavior, which is still unknown. Using Y-tube bioassays and yellow sticky cards, I demonstrated that T. japonicus is likely not attracted to commercial synthetic H. halys aggregation pheromones, a result that has biological implications and may be useful to growers using baited sticky traps to monitor for H. halys. Using potted tree of heaven and peach trees, I demonstrated that trees respond to feeding and feeding and oviposition of H. halys with changes in volatile compound expression, a first step in determining if T. japonicus or other parasitoids use these cues to find H. halys eggs. Finally, based on prior studies laying a groundwork of genetic material for H. halys, I was able to demonstrate the apparent gene-editing of H. halys using the rapidly developing method of Cas9-mediated gene editing, which could be utilized to further investigate the biology or specific field control of H. halys.