rHRlPS BIOCONTROL: OPPORTUNITIES FOR USE OF NATURAL ENEMIES AGAINST THE PEAR THRIPS

Thrips have been considered as both target pests and control agents in biological control. The main emphasis of this paper concerns the natural enemies of thrips and an appraisal of the potential for biological control of the pear thrips on sugar maple in the northeastern United States. Previous attempts at biological control o f thrips pests have been confined t o the Caribbean and Hawaii and have made use of eulophid larval parasitoids and anthocorid predators as control agents. A review of the literature indicates that while these t w o groups often figure most strongly in natural enemy complexes of thrips, fungal pathogens are an important, if neglected, group. For biological control of pear thrips it is considered that synchronized univoltine parasitoids and fungal pathogens from Europe, the region of origin of the pest, show most promise as potential biological control agents