The oak lace bug (OLB), Corythucha arcuata (Hemiptera: Tingidae), was first identified as an invasive pest in Europe in northern Italy in 2000 and since then it has spread rapidly, attacking large forested areas in European countries. The OLB is a cell sap-sucking insect that is native to North America, with Quercus spp. as its main host. Its rapid expansion, successful establishment in invaded countries, and observations of more damage to hosts compared to native areas are most likely due to a lack of natural enemies, pathogens and competitors. In its native area, various natural enemies of OLBs have been identified; however, little is known about the occurrence and impact of OLB pathogens. None of the pathogenic fungi found on OLBs in natural conditions have been identified until now. In this study, we provide evidence of four entomopathogenic fungi that are naturally occurring on invasive OLBs found in infested pedunculate oak forests in eastern Croatia. On the basis of their morphology and multilocus molecular phylogeny, the fungi were identified as Beauveria pseudobassiana, Lecanicillium pissodis, Akanthomyces attenuatus and Samsoniella alboaurantium. The sequences generated for this study are available from GenBank under the accession numbers MT004817-MT004820, MT004833-MT004835, MT027501-MT27510, and MT001936-MT0011943. These pathogenic species could facilitate biological control strategies against OLBs.

中文翻译：

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昆虫病原真菌鉴定为入侵性橡树花边蝽 (Corythucha arcuata)（半翅目：Tingidae）的天然天敌


橡树花边虫 (OLB)， Corythucha arcuata （半翅目：Tingidae）于 2000 年在欧洲意大利北部首次被确定为一种入侵害虫，此后它迅速蔓延，袭击了欧洲国家的大片森林地区。 OLB 是一种吸细胞汁的昆虫，原产于北美，与栎属属 ( Quercus spp.) 相同。作为其主要宿主。它的快速扩张、在被入侵国家的成功建立以及观察到与本土地区相比对宿主造成的更大损害很可能是由于缺乏天敌、病原体和竞争对手。在其原产地，已经发现了 OLB 的多种天敌；然而，人们对 OLB 病原体的发生和影响知之甚少。迄今为止，在自然条件下，OLB 上发现的致病真菌尚未被鉴定出来。在这项研究中，我们提供了四种昆虫病原真菌的证据，这些真菌自然存在于克罗地亚东部受感染的有蒂橡树林中发现的入侵性 OLB 上。根据形态学和多位点分子系统发育，将这些真菌鉴定为白僵菌、 Lecanicillium pissodis 、 Akanthomyces attenuatus和Samsoniella alboaurantium 。本研究生成的序列可从 GenBank 获得，登录号为 MT004817-MT004820、MT004833-MT004835、MT027501-MT27510 和 MT001936-MT0011943。这些致病物种可以促进针对 OLB 的生物控制策略。