Invasive pests are considered a major threat to biodiversity, conservation and agriculture. The Italian peninsula is a major site of intensive commercial exchange and transport of plants and goods, being consequently one of the European countries most invaded by alien insects. Hemiptera Coccomorpha are the largest group of non-native species recorded in Europe. For example, in the last 70 years more than 50 scale insect species have been accidentally introduced into Italy, 50% of which are now well established. This study was conducted to investigate the biology and the damage of the non-native pine tortoise scale Toumeyella parvicornis Cockerell (Hemiptera: Coccidae) accidentally introduced a few years ago into southern Italy. T. parvicornis is multivoltine in the invaded territories, being able to complete at least three generations per year, overwintering in the adult female stage. Oviposition periods during 2015-2017 surveys occurred from late April to end of May, from July to first half of August, and from mid-September to November. Fecundity was positively correlated to body size of gravid females and varied among the generations. Investigations on natural control by autochthonous species showed a seasonal activity of Metaphycus flavus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), parasitizing mainly immature male individuals. The morpho-molecular approach confirms the hypothesis of an ongoing shift of parasitoid populations from other indigenous soft scales to the invasive one. Unfortunately, the low level of natural control was ineffective in hampering the spread of T. parvicornis, and preventing the dieback of local pine species, Pinus pinea, as observed in all invaded areas.
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Citation
Garonna AP, Foscari A, Russo E, Jesu G, Somma S, Cascone P, Guerrieri E (2018). The spread of the non-native pine tortoise scale Toumeyella parvicornis (Hemiptera: Coccidae) in Europe: a major threat to Pinus pinea in Southern Italy. iForest 11: 628-634. - doi: 10.3832/ifor2864-011
Academic Editor
Massimo Faccoli
Paper history
Received: May 24, 2018
Accepted: Jul 13, 2018
First online: Oct 04, 2018
Publication Date: Oct 31, 2018
Publication Time: 2.77 months
© SISEF - The Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology 2018
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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
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