Abstract
The conical snail, Cochlicella acuta, is an introduced pest of grain crops in Australia. Biological control of C. acuta has been attempted using the parasitoid fly, Sarcophaga villeneuveana, sourced from southern France, but has failed. Molecular genetics of the snails and climatic matching have suggested greater success might be realised using flies from southern Iberia (Spain and Portugal) or Morocco. We measured levels of parasitism of C. acuta by S. villeneuveana at several sites within southern Iberia, and near the previous fly release site in Australia. Emergence of flies was slightly higher in Iberia, compared with Australia, but 31% of the S. villeneuveana that reached pupal stage within C. acuta in Iberia were hyperparasitised (up to 63% at individual sites). No hyperparasites emerged from Australian collections of C. acuta. These data encourage further searches in southern Iberia for more effective populations of S. villeneuveana for use as biological control agents.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Grains Research and Development Corporation Australia for funding the research (Projects DAS00095 and DAS00134). Latif Salehi (SARDI, Australia) kindly assisted with the snail collections at Warooka in 2015–2017. Val Caron (CSIRO) collected the snails there in 2018 and provided advice on a draft of the manuscript. Elven Kerdellant (EBCL, France) assisted with snail dissections. We particularly thank the La Consejera de Medio Ambiente y Ordenacion del Territorio de la Junta de Andalucia and Generalitat de Valenciana Conselleria de Infraestructures, Territori I Medi Ambient for authorisations of collections.
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Thomann, T., Jourdan, M., Richet, R. et al. Parasitism of the conical snail, Cochlicella acuta, by the fly, Sarcophaga villeneuveana, in south-western Europe. BioControl 65, 673–679 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-020-10034-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-020-10034-x