The relative influence of agricultural abandonment and semi-natural habitats on parasitoid diversity and community composition.

Wild biodiversity is usually larger in semi-natural habitats than in croplands, but this pattern is not ubiquitous because it varies among taxa and geographic regions. Knowing how the diversity of natural enemies is structured at the landscape level is important to better understand when semi-natural habitats promote the conservation of natural enemies and ultimately enhance biocontrol. We explore the relative influence of agricultural abandonment and the proportion of semi-natural habitats at the landscape level on the diversity and abundance of parasitoid wasps in the Ichneumonidae family.

Do Refuge Plants Favour Natural Pest Control in Maize Crops?

The use of non-crop plants to provide the resources that herbivorous crop pests' natural enemies need is being increasingly incorporated into integrated pest management programs. We evaluated insect functional groups found on three refuges consisting of five different plant species each, planted next to a maize crop in Lima, Peru, to investigate which refuge favoured natural control of herbivores considered as pests of maize in Peru, and which refuge plant traits were more attractive to those desirable enemies. Insects occurring in all the plants, including the maize crop itself, were sampled weekly during the crop growing cycle, from February to June 2011.

Ten new species of Triclistus Förster, 1869 (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Peru, with a key to Neotropical species.

Triclistus Förster, 1869 is a widely distributed genus of the family Ichneumonidae, rich in the Old World but poorly represented in the Neotropical region. Ten new species are described: Triclistus ashaninka sp. n.