Il complesso dei parassitoidi di Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in Italia.

After its arrival into Europe from South America, the tomato borer Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) caused severe yield losses to tomato crops both in open field and in protected greenhouses. In Italy, various research groups started to monitor the complex of natural antagonists which moved to develop on this invasive species, by sampling on attacked tomato (both for fresh and processing use) as well as on secondary hosts, both cultivated (eggplants, potato) and spontaneous (Solanum nigrum). Several native parasitoids have been found to parasitize T. absoluta, following the typical pattern of colonization on exotic pests. The recovered species were, in fact, mainly generalist idiobiont, which cause low levels of parasitism in open field. The species found belong to 13 genera and 6 families (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Eulophidae, Elasmidae, Pteromalidae and Trichogrammatidae). In particular, the 16 identified species were: Diadegma ledicola Horstmann, Diadegma pulchripes (Kokujev), Agathis fuscipennis (Zetterstedt), Bracon hebetor (Say), Bracon osculator (Nees), Bracon (Habrobracon) nigricans Szepligeti, Chrysocharis pentheus (Walker), Diglyphus crassinervis Erdös, Necremnus artynes (Walker), Necremnus sp. near artynes (Walker), Necremnus sp. near tidius (Walker), Neochrysocharis formosa (Westwood), Pnigalio soemius s.l. (Walker), Pnigalio cristatus (Ratzeburg), Pnigalio incompletus (Boucek) and Halticoptera aenea (Walker). For 13 species, the findings represent the first host-parasitoid association report on T. absoluta. This survey suggests that indigenous natural enemies may have a potential role in reducing population of T. absoluta, and habitat management techniques should be considered in the development of integrated management strategy of the tomato borer in the Mediterranean are