Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T23:39:58.359Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Oviposition by introduced Ophelimus eucalypti (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and morphogenesis of female-induced galls on Eucalyptus saligna (Myrtaceae) in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

A. Raman*
Affiliation:
The University of Sydney, PO Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
T.M. Withers
Affiliation:
Forest Health, Forest Research, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, New Zealand
*
*Fax: + 61 2 6360 5590 E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

An Australian gall-inducing eulophid, Ophelimus eucalypti (Gahan) was first recorded on the foliage of Eucalyptus botryoides after it invaded New Zealand in 1987. It has spread throughout the eucalypt plantations in the North Island and in the northern parts of the South Island affecting several species of Eucalyptus in the section Transversaria (subgenus Symphyomyrtus). Because gall-inducing insects usually have extremely narrow host ranges, O. eucalypti that induces galls on E. saligna and E. botryoides is currently recognized as a biotype, O. eucalypti (Transversaria). Heavily galled leaves abscise from the plant. Repeated defoliation led to widespread die-back of susceptible eucalypt species in the 1990s. Female larvae of O. eucalypti induce circular, protruding galls on the leaves of E. botryoides and E. saligna, whereas the males induce pit galls on the same species. The biology of O. eucalypti females and the development of their galls are described. Adult female O. eucalypti antennate the leaf surface before inserting the ovipositor (otherwise concealed within the metasomal apex) into the young host leaf. The egg is inserted at approximately 45° and discharged between differentiating palisade cells. Callus-type cells surround the egg chamber, but cytologically specialized nutritive cells appear once the egg hatches and the larva begins to feed. The gall also differentiates a multi-layered sclerenchymatous tissue around the nutritive tissue. After feeding for many months, the larva pupates and the active nutritive tissue degenerates. The adult wasp emerges after cutting an exit hole through to the outside of the gall. Abscission of heavily galled leaves results in widespread defoliation and loss of growth and vigour in susceptible trees in New Zealand.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Boučaronek, Z. (1977) Descriptions of Tachinobia gen.n. and three new species of Tetrastichinae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), with a tentative key to genera. Bulletin of Entomological Research 67, 1730.Google Scholar
Boučaronek, Z. (1988) In Australian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). pp Wallingford, Oxon: CAB International.Google Scholar
Bronner, R. (1977) Contribution à l'étude histochimique des tissus nourriciers des zoocécidies. Marcellia 40, 1134.Google Scholar
Bronner, R. (1992) The role of nutritive cells in the nutrition of cynipids and cecidomyiids. pp 118140. in Shorthouse, J.D. and Rohfritsch, O.Biology of insect-induced galls. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, A.F. (1938) A survey of insect pests of eucalypts in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 19, 750761.Google Scholar
Dennill, G.B. (1985) The effect of the gall wasp Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) on reproductive potential and vegetative growth of the weed Acacia longifolia. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 14, 5361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Docters, van, Leeuwen, W. & Docters van Leeuwen-Reijnvaan, J. (1907) Über die Anatomie und die Entwicklung einiger Isosoma-Gallen auf Triticum repens und Junceum und über die Biologie der Gallformen. Marcellia 6, 68101.Google Scholar
Dreger-Jauffret, F. & Shorthouse, J.D. (1992) Diversity of gall-inducing insects and their galls. pp 833. in Shorthouse, J.D. and Rohfritsch, O.Biology of insect-induced galls. New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feder, N. & O'Brien, T.P. (1968) Plant microtechnique: some principles and new methods. American Journal of Botany 55, 123142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gahan, A.B. & Ferrière, C. (1947) Notes on some gall-inducing Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). Annals of the Entomological Society of America 40, 271302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, N.D. & Blakeley, P.F. (1971) The rye jointworm (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae), new insect pest in western Canada. Canadian Entomologist 103, 277280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houard, C. (1904) Recherches anatomiques sur les galles de tiges: Acrocécidies. Annales des Sciences Naturelles Botanique 20, 289382.Google Scholar
Johansen, D.A. (1940) In Plant microtechnique. pp New York, McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Kato, K. & Hijii, N. (1997) Effects of gall formation by Dryocosmus kuriphilus Yasumatsu (Hym., Cynipidae) on the growth of chestnut trees. Journal of Applied Entomology 121, 915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaSalle, J. (1987) New World Tanaostigmatidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea). Contributions of the American Entomological Institute 223, 1181.Google Scholar
Malyshev, S.I. (1968) In Genesis of the Hymenoptera and the phases of their evolution. London, Methuen & Co.Google Scholar
Mani, M.S. (2000) In Plant galls of India. Enfield, New Hampshire, Science Publishers: Inc.Google Scholar
Mattson, W.J., Lawrence, R.K., Haack, R.A., Herms, D.A. & Charles, P.-J. (1988) Defensive strategies of woody plants against insect-feeding guilds in relation to plant ecological strategies and intimacy of association with insects.pp 338. in Mattson, W.J., Levieux, J. & Bernard-Dagan, C. (Eds) Mechanisms of woody plant defenses against insects: search for pattern. New York, Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maunders, M.J., Brown, S.B. & Woolhouse, H.W. (1983) The appearance of chlorophyll derivatives in senescing tissue. Phytochemistry 22, 24432446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, P. (1989) Ophelimus eucalypti: a recently introduced gall-making insect on eucalypts. Tree Grower May 1989. pp 2627.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. (1987) In Plant galls and gall inducers. Stuttgart/Berlin, Gebrüder Bornträger.Google Scholar
Morrow, P.A., Whitham, T.G., Potts, B.M., Ladiges, P., Ashton, D.H. & Williams, J.B. (1993) Gall-forming insects concentrate on hybrid phenotypes of Eucalyptus. pp 121134. in Price, P.W., Mattson, W.J. and Baranchikov, T.N. (Eds) The ecology and evolution of gall-forming insects, St Paul, Minnesota, General Technical Report no. NC-174, United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. North Central Forest Experiment Station.Google Scholar
Narendran, T.C. (1984) Chalcids and sawflies associated with plant galls. pp 273304. Ananthakrishnan, T.N. (Ed.) in Biology of gall insects. New Delhi, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Naumann, I.D., van Achterberg, K., Houston, T.F., Michener, C.D. & Taylor, R.W. (1991) Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants, sawflies). pp 9161000. in Naumann, I.D., Carne, P.B., Lawrence, J.F., Nielsen, E.S., Spradbery, J.P., Taylor, R.W., Whitten, M.J. & Littlejohn, M.J.The insects of Australia, 2nd edn. Melbourne, CSIRO. Melbourne, University Press.Google Scholar
Noble, N.S. (1936) The citrus gall wasp (Eurytoma fellis Girault). New South Wales Science Bulletin 90, 1338.Google Scholar
Noble, N.S. (1940) Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Froggatt) (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) a wasp causing galls on the flower buds of Acacia longifolia Willd., Acacia floribunda Sieber and Acacia sophorae R.Br. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 90, 1338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peel, A.J. & Ho, L.C. (1970) Colony size of Tuberolachnus salignus (Gmelin) in relation to mass transport of 14C-labelled assimilates in willow. Physiologia Plantarum 23, 10331038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quicke, D.L.J. (1997) In Parasitic wasps. pp London, Chapman & Hall.Google Scholar
Raman, A. (1996) Nutritional diversity in gall-inducing insects and their evolutionary relationships with flowering plants. International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences 22, 133143.Google Scholar
Shorthouse, J.D., West, A., Landry, R.W. & Thibodeau, P.D. (1986) Structural damage by female Hemadas nubilipennis (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) as a factor in gall induction on lowbush blueberry. Canadian Entomologist 118, 249254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somerfield, K.G. (1976) Host range of Rhicnopeltella spp. (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae). New Zealand Entomologist 6, 194196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, G.S. (1997) Effect of plant compounds on the population dynamics of the lerp insect, Cardiaspina albitextura Taylor (Psylloidea: Spondyliaspididae) on eucalypts. pp 3537. in Raman, A. in Ecology and evolution of plant-feeding insects in natural and man-made environments. New Delhi, International Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Valentine, E.W. (1970) A list of the phytophagous Hymenoptera in New Zealand. New Zealand Entomologist 4, 5262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Staden, J., Davey, J.E. & Noel, A.R.A. (1977) Gall formation in Erythrina latissima. Zeitschrift für Pflanzenphysiologie 84, 283294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, P.J. (1996) Gall wasp on Eucalyptus botryoides and Eucalyptus saligna and possibilities for biological control. New Zealand Forestry 41, 4041.Google Scholar
Walsh, P.J. (1998) Report to the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association on a survey of insect pests and their known distributions as at 23 March 1998. In Tree Grower May 1998. pp 3639.Google Scholar
Weekley, C. (2000) The natural history of Tanaostigmodes pithecellobiae (Hymenoptera: Tanaostigmatidae), a gall-maker on blackbead (Pithecellobium keyense). Florida Entomologist 83, 3139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, A. & Shorthouse, J.D. (1989) Initiation and development of the stem gall induced by Hemadas nubilipennis (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) on lowbush blueberry Vaccinium angustifolium (Ericaceae). Canadian Journal of Botany 67, 21872198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Withers, T.M. (2001) Colonization of eucalypts in New Zealand by Australian insects. Austral Ecology 26, 467476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Withers, T.M., Raman., A. & Berry, J.A. (2000) Host range and biology of Ophelimus eucalypti (Gahan) (Hym.: Eulophidae), a pest of New Zealand eucalypts. New Zealand Plant Protection 53, 339344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar