Survey for natural enemies of the invasive alien chrysomelid, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, in Central Europe

Abstract

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte(Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is the mostdestructive pest of maize (Zea mays L.)in North America, and began to successfullyinvade Central Europe in the early 1990's. Thispaper reports a three-year field surveyconducted in Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Croatia,which are currently the focal points ofinvasion, with the aim to determine theoccurrence of indigenous natural enemies ofD. v. virgifera in Europe. A total of9,900 eggs, 550 larvae, 70 pupae and 33,000adults were examined for the occurrence ofparasitoids, nematodes, and fungal pathogens. It can be concluded from the survey resultsthat effective indigenous natural enemies arenot attacking any of the life stages of D.v. virgifera in Europe. The exception is theoccurrence of the fungi Beauveriabassiana (Bals.) Vuill. (Mitosporic fungi;formerly Deuteromyces) and Metarhiziumanisopliae (Metsch.) Sorok (Mitosporic fungi)attacking adults of D. v. virgifera at anextremely low level (< 1%). However no otherentomopathogenic fungal pathogens,entomopathogenic nematodes, or parasitoids werefound on eggs, larvae, pupae or adults. Whileseveral natural enemies in North and CentralAmerica are known to attack D. v.virgifera, it is apparent that indigenousnatural enemies in Europe have not adapted tothe high population density of the alieninvasive species D. v. virgifera. Classical biological control may provide anopportunity to reconstruct the natural enemycomplex of an invading alien pest, and itsapplication to manage D. v. virgiferapopulations in Europe should be considered.