CROCHARD , Didier

Inactivation of host Rho GTPases is a widespread strategy employed by bacterial pathogens to manipulate mammalian cellular functions and avoid immune defenses. Some bacterial toxins mimic eukaryotic Rho GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) to inactivate mammalian GTPases, probably as a result of evolutionary convergence. An intriguing question...

Environmental variation is classically expected to affect negatively population growth and to increase extinction risk, and it has been identified as a major determinant of establishment failures in the field. Yet, recent theoretical investigations have shown that the structure of environmental variation and more precisely the presence of...

Background: The widespread use of genome sequencing provided evidences for the high degree of conservation in innate immunity signalling pathways across animal phyla. However, the functioning and evolutionary history of immune-related genes remains unknown for most invertebrate species. A striking observation coming from the analysis of the pea...

Identifying the main routes followed by an invasive species has significant management implications and may help to understand its colonization process. The obscure mealybug, Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret, 1875), is an important agricultural pest native to South America that infests fruit crops worldwide. The genetic diversity and structure of...

International audience

International audience

National audience

The present study aimed to characterize the distribution of mealybug species along Chilean agro-ecosystems and to determine the relative impact of host plant, management strategy, geography and micro-environment on shaping the distribution and genetic structure of the obscure mealybug Pseudococcus viburni. An extensive survey was completed...

Thrips are among the most important pests in greenhouses worldwide because of recurrent outbreaks of both native and invading species. Yet, their biodiversity, distribution and ecology remain still poorly documented, probably because of their small size, the high morphological similarity between taxa and their discretion apart from the outbreak...

Parasitoids of three mealybug pests (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), Planococcus ficus (Signoret), Pseudococcus sociabilis Hambleton, and Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret) have been identified for the first time in Brazil. Mealybugs were collected in fruit-growing areas along southern Brazil during 2013–2016. An integrative approach, combining...

The typical life cycle of aphids includes several parthenogenetic generations and a single sexual generation ( cyclical parthenogenesis), but some species or populations are totally asexual ( obligate parthenogenesis). Genetic variability is generally low in these asexually reproducing populations, that is, few genotypes are spread over large...

Scale insects (Sternorrhyncha: Coccoidea) are one of the most invasive and agriculturally damaging insect groups. Their management and the development of new control methods are currently jeopardized by the scarcity of identification data, in particular in regions where no large survey coupling morphological and DNA analyses have been...

Armored scales (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) are important pests in citrus orchards worldwide. Augmentative releases of Aphelinidae wasps (Hymenoptera) have been performed in Corsica, France to control the California Red Scale (Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell, 1879)) and the arrowhead scale (Unaspis yanonensis (Kuwana, 1923)), but biological control of...

Thrips are among the most important pests in greenhouses worldwide because of recurrent outbreaks of both native and invading species. Yet, the biodiversity, distribution and ecology of thrips taxa are still poorly documented. Reasons accounting for this situation are probably their small size, the high morphological similarity among taxa and...

Scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) are key pests of agricultural crops and ornamental plants worldwide. Their populations are difficult to control, even with insecticides, due to their cryptic habits. Moreover, there is growing concern over the use of synthetic pesticides for their control, due to deleterious environmental...

Delottococcus aberiae De Lotto (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is a mealybug of Southern African origin that has recently been introduced into Eastern Spain. It causes severe distortions on young citrus fruits and represents a growing threat to Mediterranean citrus production. So far, biological control has proven unsatisfactory due to the absence...

Pseudococcus comstocki (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) is a mealybug species native to Eastern Asia and present as an invasive pest in northern Italy and southern France since the start of the century. It infests apple and pear trees, grapevines and some ornamental trees. Biocontrol programmes against this pest proved successful in central Asia and...