January 27, 2007
Working to I.D. Foes of Emerald Ash Borer
The emerald ash borer, a major threat to ash trees, may have met the enemy, parasitic wasps.And it's now up to researchers, including those at ARS's Sytematic Entomology Laboratory (SEL), to figure precisely who that enemy is.
"We know of three species of parasitic wasps that are natural enemies of these beetles," says SEL entomologist Michael Schauff, who is based in Beltsville, Maryland. He and fellow entomologist Michael Gates, who works out of SEL's Washington, D.C., facilities, are leading ARS's taxonomic work against the pest.
"But we can't put a name on these potentially helpful wasps without first doing research. We do suspect that some of these species have been unknown to science up to this point."
For more information, go to http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/feb05/borers0205.htm
Photo by Klaus Bolte
Posted by Ron Wolford at 3:19 PM |
