Native natural enemies of plant pests in Slovenia with an emphasis on species suitable for mass rearing

Abstract

In Slovenia, only the native natural enemies of plant pests that are on the EPPO Positive List of biological control agents can be used in agricultural production to control plant pests. The List of native species of organisms for biological control, which is an important part of the Regulations on biological control, currently includes a total of 35 species of beneficial insects and mites and entomopathogenic nematodes. Compared to the number of species on the first list that was established in 2006, the number of beneficial species that Slovenian growers of food and ornamental plants can currently use in everyday practice has doubled. This is the result of intensive professional and research work in the investigation of the occurrence and distribution of natural enemy species in Slovenia, which has been systematically supported by the state for many years. Natural enemy species, which are an integral part of the EPPO Positive List of biological control agents, can be included on the list of native biological control species via a special procedure. However, many natural enemy species that are not yet included on the EPPO Positive List have been identified in the period 2007-2022. In this paper, we list 75 such species and we present 5 candidates (Cotesia glomerata [L.], Diadegma semiclausum [Hellen], Anisopteromalus calandrae [Howard], Neochrysocharis formosa [Westwood] and Kampimodromus aberrans [Oudemans]) that, in our opinion, have high potential as biological controls and will be suitable in the future for mass rearing and use in augmentative biological control.

Keywords: EPPO Positive List; biological control; candidate.