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Bracon mellitor
Bracon mellitor is a braconid parasitoid wasp specialized on weevils in the genus Anthonomus, particularly the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis), a major cotton pest. It is native to North America, occurring from South Dakota and Texas eastward. The species has been extensively studied for its potential in biological control programs, with research spanning its developmental biology, host relationships, oviposition behavior, and responses to insecticides. Females are ectoparasitoids that attack host larvae and pupae, and the species exhibits associative learning in response to chemical cues.
parasitoid biological-control cotton-pest ectoparasitoid associative-learning thermal-biology Anthonomus integrated-pest-management artificial-diet-rearing
Trichosirocalus
rosette weevils, crown weevils
A genus of small true weevils native to the Palearctic region. Several species have been widely introduced to North America, Australia, and New Zealand as biological control agents for invasive thistles. The genus was historically treated as containing a single species, T. horridus, but integrative taxonomic studies using molecular and morphological data have revealed multiple distinct species with different host associations.
weevil biological-control thistle invasive-species-management Ceutorhynchinae rosette-feeder Ceutorhynchini Baridinae taxonomic-revision classical-biological-control Carduus Cirsium Onopordum Palearctic-native introduced-species molecular-systematics integrative-taxonomy univoltine leaf-miner agricultural-pest-control pasture-weed-management species-complex host-specificity musk-thistle plumeless-thistle Scotch-thistle Illyrian-thistle welted-thistle Italian-thistle crown-weevil rosette-weevil oviposition-behavior overwintering egg-stage larval-stage adult-stage decaying-organic-matter soil-surface non-photosynthetic-leaves green-leaves leaf-midribs petioles leaf-mining notching-damage rosette-survival flowering-stem-reduction seed-production-reduction rosette-mortality population-density-effects mark-recapture dispersal-patterns artificial-diet-rearing laboratory-culture vitamin-supplementation lyophilized-thistle-roots ergosterol casein-hydrolysate 7-dehydrocholesterol sucrose larval-survival adult-longevity oviposition female-fecundity field-cage-experiments individual-cage-experiments growth-parameter-reduction pre-release-host-specificity-testing post-release-monitoring establishment-success range-expansion forested-areas agricultural-land pasture small-farms crops disturbed-habitats meadows dense-patches rosette-size-preference spatial-distribution selective-oviposition autumn-egg-laying winter-larval-development spring-pupation late-summer-adult-emergence soil-overwintering plant-debris-overwintering rachis leaf-dissection destructive-sampling non-destructive-sampling sampling-bias life-stage-detection established-populations mitochondrial-COI nuclear-EF-1α morphological-characters host-plant-associations synonymy species-validity introduction-history release-records establishment-records Old-World-native New-World-introduction Southern-Hemisphere-introduction Australia New-Zealand North-America Virginia Southwest-Virginia Europe Spain France Germany Italy Switzerland Austria Scandinavia Denmark Norway Sweden Colonnelli-1979 Panzer-1801 Alonso-Zarazaga-&-Sánchez-Ruiz-2002 Ceutorhynchinae-vs-Baridinae subfamily-placement tribe-placement true-weevils Curculionidae Coleoptera Insecta Arthropoda Animalia 882-iNaturalist-observations GBIF-records Catalogue-of-Life-accepted NCBI-Taxonomy Bulletin-of-Entomological-Research Journal-of-Applied-Ecology Journal-of-Entomological-Science Annals-of-the-Entomological-Society-of-America Environmental-Entomology DOI-10.1017/s000748531500084x DOI-10.1046/j.1365-2664.2002.00747.x DOI-10.18474/0749-8004-22.4.324 DOI-10.18474/0749-8004-22.4.330 DOI-10.18474/0749-8004-24.4.465 DOI-10.1093/aesa/73.6.694 DOI-10.1093/ee/10.5.691