MALAUSA , Thibaut

SP-Designer is an open-source program providing a user-friendly tool for the design of specific PCR primer pairs from a DNA sequence alignment containing sequences from various taxa. SP-Designer selects PCR primer pairs for the amplification of DNA from a target species on the basis of several criteria: (i) primer specificity, as assessed by...

International audience

Comprendre les facteurs déterminant le succès ou l'échec des processus invasifs est un objectif majeur en biologie de l'invasion. De nombreux travaux théoriques se sont intéressés aux composantes écologiques et évolutives de ces facteurs. Cependant, les tests d'hypothèses associés à une démarche expérimentale restent rares. La plupart des...

Utilization of microcosms to test invasion biology hypotheses. Understanding the factors underlying establishment and spread of exotic species in order to predict invasion risks is a major goal in invasion biology. Many theoretical studies investigated the ecological and evolutionary components of these factors and their impact on the invasive...

Populations are introduced into novel environments in different contexts, one being the biological control of pests. Despite intense efforts, less than half introduced biological control agents establish. Among the possible approaches to improve biological control, one is to better understand the processes that underpin introductions and...

Several parasitoids of the genus Psyttalia have been repeatedly introduced as biological control agents against the principal pest of olive, the fly Bactrocera oleae. However, few of the parasitoids released have become established and proved effective against B. oleae. It may however still be possible to find effective biological control...

Zéro Pesticides – Un nouveau paradigme de recherche pour une agriculture durableL'usage des pesticides chimiques est une préoccupation sociétale majeure en raison de leurs impacts négatifs sur l'environnement et la santé. Le Programme prioritaire de recherche (PPR) « Cultiver et Protéger Autrement », piloté par INRAe, joue un rôle structurant...

Mealybugs are major pests of grapevines worldwide. They cause economic losses by lowering the cosmetic value of fruits, reducing yields, transmitting viruses and resulting in the quarantine or rejection of produce in international trade. Knowledge of the species present in a vineyard is important for the adjustment of management strategies. We...

Inbreeding and inbreeding depression are processes in small populations of particular interest for a range of human activities such as animal breeding, species conservation, or pest management. In particular, biological control programs should benefit from a thorough understanding of the causes and consequences of inbreeding because natural...

The current study extends the faunistic survey ofTrichogrammaspecies parasitizing ECB to all agricultural growing regions in Serbia. Specimens ofTrichogrammawere reared from parasitized egg masses of ECB collected from field-grown corn and pepper crops. The number of egg masses parasitized varied by location. Using sequences of mitochondrial...

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...

The parasitoid wasp Mastrus ridens (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) is a particularly well-suited biological model to document the history and evolution of populations used in classical biological control, repeatedly moved from laboratory to laboratory worldwide and introduced in various environments. This specialist ectoparasitoid of the codling...

Mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) are important pests for crops worldwide. Different species, cryptic taxa under the same species name or even populations within a species can differ in biological characteristics, such as phenology, resistance to insecticides, virus transmission and susceptibility to natural enemies. Therefore, their...

Background: The rapid evolution of 454 GS-FLX sequencing technology has not been accompanied by a reassessment of the quality and accuracy of the sequences obtained. Current strategies for decision-making and error-correction are based on an initial analysis by Huse et al. in 2007, for the older GS20 system based on experimental sequences. We...

The species lives on Lavandula x intermedia, the cultivated form of lavender grown in the French region of Provence. In addition the mealybug species recorded in France on indigenous lavender are listed. The status of two related genera, Trionymus Berg and Dysmicoccus Ferris, is discussed.

We performed no-choice tests to study the host range of the parasitoid Allotropa burrelli (Muesebeck) (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) for use against the Comstock mealybug, Pseudococcus comstocki (Kuwana) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), in Southern France. We tested three Pseudococcidae species as potential non-target hosts: two species from the...

Pseudococcidae (mealybugs) is a large taxonomic group, including a number of agronomic pests. Taxonomic identification of mealybug species is a recurrent problem and represents a major barrier to the establishment of adequate pest management strategies. We combined molecular analysis of three DNA markers (28S-D2, cytochrome oxidase I and...

Sex determination is ruled by haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera, with haploid males arising from unfertilized eggs and diploid females from fertilized eggs. However, diploid males with null fitness are produced under complementary sex determination (CSD), when individuals are homozygous for this locus. Diploid males are expected to be more frequent...

National audience

Protéger les cultures par des moyens naturels est une nécessité pour la transition vers une agriculture respectueuse de l'environnement. Un effort de recherche et développement sans précédent est aujourd'hui mis en œuvre dans le domaine du biocontrôle, qui rassemble des approches basées sur l'usage d'organismes vivants et de produits d'origine...

QDD is an open access program providing a user-friendly tool for microsatellite detection and primer design from large sets of DNA sequences. The program is designed to deal with all steps of treatment of raw sequences obtained from pyrosequencing of enriched DNA libraries, but it is also applicable to data obtained through other sequencing...

Brazil has the greatest insect diversity in the world; however, little is known about its scale insect species (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha). Mealybugs (Pseudococcidae) have been found in at least 50% of persimmon orchards Diospyros kaki L. in the southern part of the country. In this study three new mealybug species on persimmon trees located in...

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...