''Lathrolestes luteolator'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of wasp in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Ichneumonidae The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family (biology), family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 2 ...

. it is native to North America and is a

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

of various species of

sawfly Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera, alongside ants, bees, and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay ...

larvae. In the 1990s, it started to parasitise the larvae of the invasive amber-marked birch leaf miner in Alberta. When this pest spread to Alaska, the wasp was used in

biological pest control Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests, such as insects, mites, weeds, and plant diseases, using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also invo ...

Ecology

Like other parasitic wasps in the family Ichneumonidae, the adult female ''L. luteolator'' uses its

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

to lay eggs inside the body of its prey, usually the larval stage of a sawfly larva, often a

leaf miner A leaf miner is any one of numerous species of insects in which the larval stage lives in, and eats, the leaf tissue of plants. The vast majority of leaf-mining insects are moths (Lepidoptera), sawflies (Symphyta, the mother clade of wasps), ...

. When the eggs hatch, the carnivorous larvae live in and consume the body of their host. Various sawfly larvae are attacked including the

red oak The genus Oak, ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many List of the largest genera of flowering plants, large genera, is Taxonomic rank#Ranks in botany, divided into subgenus, subgen ...

leaf miner ('' Profenusa alumna''). In Alberta, the host is the " pear slug" (''Caliroa cerasi''), which is not a mollusc but the larva of a

. However, in Alberta in the early 1990s, the wasp adopted a new host and started parasitising the amber-marked birch leaf miner (''Profenusa thomsoni''), an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

that had appeared in the province twenty years earlier and become a major pest of birch trees (''

Betula A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

''). A dramatic collapse in populations of the leaf miner followed, and numbers remain low, seemingly kept under control by the parasitic wasp. By 2003 the range of the amber-marked birch leaf miner had extended into Alaska, and it was spreading, first throughout the

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

Basin, and later into the Eagle River watershed and the

Matanuska-Susitna Valley Matanuska-Susitna Valley () (known locally as the Mat-Su or The Valley) is an area in Southcentral Alaska south of the Alaska Range about north of Anchorage, Alaska. It is known for the world record sized cabbages and other vegetables displayed ...

and southwards to Bird Ridge, causing serious defoliation of birch trees. A biological control program of the pest using ''Lathrolestes luteolator'' was initiated in 2004.

References

{{Authority control Ichneumoninae Hymenoptera of North America Insects used as insect pest control agents Insects described in 1829 Taxa named by Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst