Molecular identification of Trichogramma species from South and South-East Asia and natural Wolbachia infection

Abstract

Trichogramma wasps were collected from the parasitized eggs of lepidopteran pests from 21 sampling sites in East Asia and South-East Asia. Six Trichogramma species were identified based on the molecular identificationmethod using the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region of the rDNAof Trichogramma chilonis, T. evanescens, T. ostriniae, T. embryophagum, T. dendrolimi and T. japonicum. The results of molecular identification were confirmed by morphological identification. Additionally, natural populations were screened for the prevalence of Wolbachia. Five out of 21 populations were infected by the same Wolbachia strain, which was identified by using Wolbachia wsp gene and multilocus sequencing approach. The phylogenetic analysis of Wolbachia wsp sequences revealed that the Wolbachia strain was classified in the strain wEvaA in the group of EvA of the supergroup A.