Toward a push-pull strategy against invasive snails using chemical and visual stimuli.

Four invasive Mediterranean snails, i.e., Theba pisana (Müller, 1774), Cernuella virgata (da Costa, 1778), Cochlicella acuta (Müller, 1774) and Cochlicella barbara (Linnaeus, 1758) cost $170 million yearly to the grain industry in Australia.

Population-Specific Plant-To-Plant Signaling in Wild Lima Bean.

The exposure to volatiles from damaged plants can increase the resistance of the neighboring plants to herbivores. Studies have demonstrated that the strength of this response depends on the level of relatedness between the interacting plants. Indeed, a field study with found that the responses to induced volatiles were population-specific; individuals exposed to damaged conspecifics from the 'local' population exhibited greater resistance to herbivores than those exposed to damaged conspecifics from 'foreign' populations.

Identifying an Optimal Screen Mesh to Enable Augmentorium-Based Enhanced Biological Control of the Olive Fruit Fly Bactrocera oleae (Diptera: Tephritidae) and the Mediterranean Fruit Fly Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae).

The augmentorium is a cost-effective screened enclosure designed to receive fruits infested with insect pests, retain the pests inside but let their natural enemies escape to enhance biological control of pest populations. Screen selection is critical to ensure that an augmentorium is effective for a particular system. Here we tested five types of screens with a mini-augmentorium design and measured the escape of four insect species under laboratory conditions: the pests olive fruit fly Bactocera oleae (Rossi) (Diptera: Tephritidae) and Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae), and the parasitoids Psyttalia lounsburyi (Silvestri) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Psyttalia ponerophaga (Silvestri) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).

Can Estivation Preferences Be Used to Develop Novel Management Tools against Invasive Mediterranean Snails?

Terrestrial snails that live in hot and dry climates have developed strategies to cope with high summer temperatures. Several species estivate during the warmest months of the years by resting on vertical supports, typically in groups. Understanding how snails choose their estivation sites and aggregate may lead to the development of new management tools in areas where these snails are invasive.

A comparative study of plant volatiles induced by insect and gastropod herbivory.

Insect and gastropod herbivores are major plant consumers and their importance in the evolution of plant defensive traits is broadly recognized. However, their respective effects on plant responses have rarely been compared. Here we focused on plant volatile emissions (VOCs) following herbivory and compared the effects of herbivory by caterpillars of the generalist insect Spodoptera littoralis and by generalist slugs of the genus Arion on the VOCs emissions of 14 cultivated plant species.