Winter moth, Operophtera brumata, native to Europe, invaded the northeastern United States in the late 1990s, where it caused widespread defoliation of forests and shade trees ranging from 2,266 to 36,360 ha/yr between 2003 and 2015 in Massachusetts. In 2005, we initiated a biological control effort based on the specialist tachinid parasitoid Cyzenis albicans, which had previously been introduced along with the generalist ichneumonid parasitoid Agrypon flaveolatum to control winter moth in Nova Scotia in the 1950s and British Columbia in the 1970s. Due to concerns of possible non-target impacts by A. flaveolatum, we focused entirely on the specialist C. albicans. Each year for 14 yr, we collected several thousand individuals of C. albicans from British Columbia and released them in widely spaced sites in the northeastern United States. As of 2020, we had established C. albicans at 41 of 44 sites from coastal Maine to southeastern Connecticut. By 2016, winter moth densities (pupae/m²) had declined from 100–500 to 0–10 pupae/m² at six release sites at least 10 km apart and this was coincident with the onset of 10–40% parasitism. At one site in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the decline occurred in 2012 and winter moth densities have remained low for seven subsequent years. Defoliation in Massachusetts has been reduced to undetectable levels by aerial survey since 2016. DNA sequencing of the barcoding region of the mitochondrial gene CO1 confirmed that all C. albicans reared from winter moth matched the C. albicans collected from Vancouver Island and were distinct from parasitic flies (presumably a native species) reared from a native congener of winter moth, Bruce spanworm (O. bruceata). Successful establishment of C. albicans on winter moth represents a rare, if not the only, example of the biological control of a major forest defoliator that attacks a wide range of tree species anywhere in the world by the establishment of a single specialist natural enemy.

中文翻译：

---

美国东北部冬蛾 Operophtera brumata 的成功生物防治

原产于欧洲的冬蛾Operophtera brumata于 1990 年代后期入侵美国东北部，在 2003 年至 2015 年间，它在马萨诸塞州造成了森林和遮荫树的大面积落叶，范围从 2,266 到 36,360 公顷/年不等。2005 年，我们启动了一项基于专业tachinid寄生蜂Cyzenis albicans的生物控制工作，该项目之前曾与通才 ichneumonid 寄生蜂Agrypon flaveolatum一起被引入，以控制 1950 年代新斯科舍省和 1970 年代不列颠哥伦比亚省的冬蛾。由于担心A. flaveolatum可能产生非目标影响，我们完全专注于专家C. albicans. 14 年来，我们每年都收集了数千个C个体。 来自不列颠哥伦比亚省的白化病患者，并将它们释放到美国东北部的广泛分布地点。截至 2020 年，我们已经在从缅因州沿海到康涅狄格州东南部的 44 个地点中的 41 个建立了白色念珠菌。到 2016 年，冬蛾密度（蛹/米²）从 100-500 只下降到 0-10 只/米²在至少相距 10 公里的六个释放地点，这与 10-40% 寄生的开始一致。在马萨诸塞州韦尔斯利的一个地点，下降发生在 2012 年，随后的七年冬季飞蛾密度一直很低。在马萨诸塞州落叶由于线粒体基因CO1的条形码区域的2016 DNA测序已经降低到由航测检测不到的水平证实，所有的白色念珠菌来自匹配冬天蛾饲养的白色念珠菌从温哥华岛收集来自寄生不同苍蝇（可能是本地物种）由冬蛾布鲁斯蛔虫（O .  bruceata）的本地同类物饲养。成功建立白色念珠菌 冬蛾代表了一个罕见的例子，如果不是唯一的，一个主要的森林落叶虫的生物控制例子，它通过建立单一的专业天敌来攻击世界上任何地方的各种树种。