Trissolcus japonicus is an exotic parasitoid of pentatomids that was recently found in the U.S. The original find was observed last summer by Dr. Don Weber and his group in Beltsville, MD. Data from this original find suggests that T. japonicus was accidentally introduced to the U.S.
In China, this parasitoid is considered to be one of the important biological controls for the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB). It is yet to be determined if the presence of T. japonicus in the US will provide the level of control needed to reduce the pest status of BMSB on agricultural crops.
A publication on this can be found at: http://jhr.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=4661
In addition, the specimen has been added by Elijah Talamas to a database that includes a distribution map can be nicely visualized: http://hol.osu.edu/index.html?id=3249 (expand the map section).
Two weeks ago, Paula Shrewsbury, entomologist at UMD, reported finding Trissolcus japonicus in Laytonsville, MD from a frozen egg mass deployed in a nursery. Yesterday, Angelita Acebes-Doria and Chris Bergh, Virginia Tech, also detected T. japonicus from a fresh egg mass deployed at the AHS-AREC in Winchester, VA. Again, specimens were confirmed to be T. japonicus by Elijah Talamas.
Notes:
Date of Deployment: June 15-18
Deployment Site: Winchester AREC
Host tree: Tree of Heaven
Type of Egg Mass: Fresh
No. of eggs in mass: 27
No. of eggs in mass at retrieval: 26
No. of parasitoids emerged: 20 (3 were mounted/pinned and brought to Elijah for ID)
Date of parasitoid emergence: June 27
The use of frozen egg masses paired with the fresh egg masses from which the Trissolcus japonicus wasps emerged are being used to locate Trissolcus japonicus from field populations. To date, the parasitoid has not been found in NY.
The revision of Trissolcus can be found here: New synonymy of Trissolcus halyomorphae Yang
