New Zealand Molecular Ecology

Invasive insects can cause millions of dollars of loss to our economy. Despite the progress in biological control and other sustainable pest control strategies, we still rely heavily on pesticides to control agricultural pests around the world. In New Zealand, the move towards more sustainable pest management is driven not only by our concern for the environment, but also by the fact that some of these pest species are actually native (e.g. ground wētā, grass grub beetle). So we sometimes need to strike a balance between controlling populations of these species in agroecosystems without threatening the survival of the species. This singularity provides a unique system to study insect invasiveness and better understand why some species have become invasive after the conversion of their native habitat into agricultural land, while others have not. In collaboration with a number of colleagues and students, particularly from the Bio-Protection Research Centre, we have been actively investigating these issues as indicated in the following list of publications on the subject.

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• Lefort M-C., Boyer S., Glare T. (2017) A response to Pennisi - “How do gut microbiomes help herbivores”, a hint into next-generation biocontrol solutions. Rethinking Ecology, 1: 9-13.

• Nboyine J.A., Boyer S., Saville D., Smith M.J., Wratten S.D. (2016) Ground weta in vines of the Awatere Valley, Marlborough: biology, density and distribution. New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 43 (4), 336-350.

• Varennes Y.-D., Chang M., Boyer S., Wratten S.D. (2016) Nectar feeding increases exploratory behaviour in the aphid parasitoid Diaeretiella rapae (McIntosh). Journal of Applied Entomology, 140, 479–483

• Varennes Y.-D., Boyer S., Wratten S.D. (2016) Nectar from oilseed rape and floral subsidies enhances longevity of an aphid parasitoid more than does host honeydew. Biocontrol, 61(6), 631-638.

• Lefort M.-C., Boyer S., Vereijssen J., Sprague R., Glare T.R., Worner S.P.A (2015) Preference of a native beetle for "exoticism", characteristics that contribute to invasive success of Costelytra zealandica (Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae). PeerJ, 3, e1454.

• Lefort M.-C., Worner S.P., Rostas M., Vereijsen J., Boyer S. (2015) Responding positively to plant defences, a candidate key trait for invasion success in phytophagous insects. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 39(1), 128-132.

• Lefort M.-C., Brown S.D.J., Boyer S., Worner S.P., Armstrong K. (2014) The PGI enzyme system and fitness response to temperature as a measure of environmental tolerance in an invasive species. PeerJ, 2, e676.

• Lefort M.-C., Boyer S., De Romans S., Armstrong K. Glare T.R., Worner S.P. (2014) Was the invasion process in the scarab Costelytra zealandica (White) within its native range driven by a host range expansion or a host-shift? PeerJ, 2, e262.

• Lefort M.-C., Barrat B., Marris J., Boyer S. (2013) Combining molecular and morphological approaches to differentiate the pest Costelytra zealandica (White) (Coleoptera: Scarabeidae: Melolonthinae) from the non-pest Costelytra brunneum (Broun) at the larval stage. New Zealand Entomologist 36, 15-21.

• Lefort M.-C., Boyer S., Worner S.P., Armstrong K. (2012) Noninvasive molecular methods to identify live scarab larvae: an example of sympatric pest and nonpest species in New Zealand. Molecular Ecology Resources, 12(3), 389–395.

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Also see Marie-Caroline Lefort's PhD thesis: When natives go wild... Why do some insect species become invasive in their native range?

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Also see Yann-David Varennes' PhD thesis: Floral resource subsidies for the enhancement of the biological control of aphids in oilseed rape crops

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Also see Mauricio Gonzáles-Chang's PhD thesis: Sustainable management of adult Costelytra zealandica (Coleoptera: Melolonthinae) damage in Marlborough vineyards

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