A new hyperparasitoid wasp, Chlorocytus papahemii, was identified in sugar beet fields in China’s Xinjiang region, adding a fourth trophic level to the food chain around the crop-damaging weevil Lixus subtilis.
The species does not attack the weevil directly; it parasitizes Eurytoma curculionum, a wasp that kills weevil larvae and is itself a potential natural control agent for farmers.
Field sampling in Yining City and Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County also produced the first confirmed record of E. curculionum in China after researchers reared parasitoid-infected larvae from damaged beet petioles.
That makes the discovery important for pest management, because hyperparasitoids can weaken biological control by killing the parasitoid wasps relied on to suppress weevil populations.
The study by teams from Xinjiang University, CIRAD and the Russian Academy of Sciences was published in ZooKeys and gives researchers a fuller map of the pest’s ecological network.