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Tom Saunders

PhD Candidate

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Factsheets

How to separate BMSB from NZ stink bugs

November 6, 2018 By Tom 2 Comments

Brown marmorated stink bug is a serious horticultural pest native to East Asia. It damages crops, infests ornamental plants, and seeks out shelter over the winter causing massive problems for homes and businesses. Fortunately we don’t have it in New Zealand yet, but in order to keep it out we need to know what it looks like. In this post I show you how to tell it apart from other New Zealand stink bugs.

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Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: biosecurity, BMSB, brown marmorated stink bug, brown shield bug, brown soldier bug, cermatulus nasalis, cuspicona simplex, dictyotus caenosus, glaucias amyoti, halyomorpha halys, hypsithocus hudsonae, identification, insects, invasive species, monteithiella humeralis, new zealand, nezara viridula, oechalia schellenbergii, pentatomidae, pests, species ID, stink bugs, stinkbug, stinkbugs, taxonomy

Stink Bugs of NZ

July 24, 2018 By Tom 6 Comments

My PhD project focuses on biocontrol: using beneficial species to manage the impacts of undesirable species.

I’m looking at Trissolcus japonicus, or the ‘samurai wasp.’ This tiny Asian wasp has been proposed for release against the brown marmorated stink bug in New Zealand (if and when the stink bug is found to have established here). My work focuses on testing the likelihood this wasp would attack New Zealand’s native and naturalised stink bug species if it were released. In order to do this, I’m rearing NZ stink bug species so I can use their eggs to test the behaviour of the wasp.

Most researchers conducting these types of tests would have to compile a short-list of stink bug species to test, based on things like their biological classification, their rarity, their economic importance, etc. But New Zealand has so few species of stink bug, I can include all potential non-target species in my tests. Here is a visual guide to New Zealand’s stink bugs.

When stink bugs hatch, they aggregate together around the egg shells until after their first moult. Image CC-BY-NC 4.0 by fairyeagle / iNaturalistNZ

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Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: BMSB, brown marmorated stink bug, cermatulus nasalis, cuspicona, dictyotus, glaucias, green veetable bug, gvb, hypsithocus hudsonae, insect culturing, insect rearing, lab, monteithiella, new zealand, nezara, oechalia, pentatomidae, phd, Plant & Food Research, samurai wasp, stink bug, stink bugs, trissolcus japonicus, university of auckland

A 1080 on pest control

December 7, 2017 By Tom Leave a Comment

We’re going round in circles on the issue of pest control.

We haven’t even had a proper conversation about how we define pests, why we should eradicate them, and what the ethics are of such a mammoth undertaking. The unveiling of the Predator Free 2050 strategy drew lots of praise, but first we need to develop some consensus on what it is we’re trying to achieve and why. In order to do this, we need have an accurate understanding of what the issues are and how we can approach them.

 

Egmont National Park by DoC, via Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)

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Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: 1080, 1080 poison, battle for our birds, biodiversity, birds, department of conservation, DoC, kaka, kea, mohua, native species, new zealand, pest control, pests, possums, rats, riflemen, robins, rock wren, stoats, yellowhead

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

November 14, 2017 By Tom Leave a Comment

Scientific name: Halyomorpha halys (Stål 1855)
Common name: Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)
Native range: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan
Current invaded range: Canada, USA, Chile, at least 11 EU countries

 

BMSB – By Hectonichus via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: biocontrol, biological control, biological invasion, BMSB, brown marmorated stink bug, halyomorpha halys, insect, parasitoid wasp, pest, samurai wasp, trissolcus japonicus

What Are Parasitoid Wasps?

October 31, 2017 By Tom 4 Comments

Most Wasps Are Misunderstood…

‘Wasps’ are truly a diverse group of insects – with over 100,000 species known out of an estimated total of 350,000, they make up a considerable chunk of biodiversity.

It’s true that some wasps wreak havoc against native biodiversity and cause serious allergic reactions when they turn their sights on people. However, only a handful of species give wasps their bad reputation in New Zealand:…

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Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: biodiversity, biological control, conservation, hymenoptera, native species, new zealand, parasitoid, parasitoid wasp, wasp, yellowjacket

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Hi!
I'm a PhD candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland. My research focuses on improving the methods used to test biological control agents for their potential non-target impacts.

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academic publishing biodiversity biological control biosecurity BMSB brown marmorated stink bug figshare GC-EAD github halyomorpha halys hymenoptera hypsithocus hudsonae landcare research Lusius malfoyi media native species new zealand open access open data open education open science parasitoid parasitoid wasp peer review pentatomidae phd Plant & Food Research post-print reference manager research samurai wasp scholarly publishing scicomm science science communication science learning hub species description taxonomy tom saunders trissolcus japonicus university university of auckland wasp wasps zotero

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