Drosophila suzukii or Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) is a pest which has recently spread in western countries. It threatens several profitable fruit crops and is also known to develop on a wide range of natural host plants. Current control methods rely on the application of insecticides but this strategy proves to be poorly effective, polluting and unsustainable. This study, conducted in Italy, investigates the efficacy of endemic and commercially available parasitoids on SWD, under laboratory conditions. It also reports on life-history traits of three species of resident parasitoids of SWD and finally assesses the efficiency of two of them in the field. Two commercially available pupal parasitoids were proved to be unable to develop on the pest whereas Trichopria drosophilae, a resident pupal parasitoid showed a high parasitization rate.
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Lifetime fecundity experiments gave information on parasitoids reproductive strategies. Field trials successfully showed the parasitoids ability to locate and parasitize the pest. The augmentorium technique, set up in one of the field trials, proved to be partly effective and therefore needs to be further improved. This study contributes to the development of the pest biocontrol strategies which may become an important management tool in the near future for an area-wide control of SWD.
