University of Adelaide PhD student Rebecca Kittel has discovered 18 new species of tiny parasitic chelonine wasps which have potential to be used as biological control agents as they specifically target individual varieties of moths.

The adult wasps inject their eggs into the eggs of host moths. The wasp larvae feed and develop inside of the moth caterpillars, emerging from the caterpillar as it dies. The larvae then form a cocoon until environmental conditions are right for the adult to emerge and the cycle begins again.

"The biology and the fact that each wasp species targets only one specific moth means that they are potentially ideal candidates for development as biological control agents of agricultural pests," says Kittel.

The wasps, which measure up to 4mm long, are among 150 new species discovered by Kittel. Specimens from around the country were sent to Kittel to identify, 250 of which were part of the 18 species published in her entry to the journal Insect Systematics & Evolution.

"Wasps from this family have been successfully introduced to Australia as controls, for example against the potato tuber moth. It's important, however, that these wasps are properly identified and described so that agricultural researchers can work with known species."

The new group - from the genus Phanerotomella Szépligeti - was previously considered a small genus, known only from three described species. Kittel's intensive study has revealed a much richer species group than previously thought.

One feature is that they look as if they are always smiling. "They are very friendly looking and indeed, they can be very good friends to us," says Kittel.

Use of parasitic insects, or natural predators, for pest control is one aspect of the fairly nebulous concept of Integrated Pest Management. Entomologists and ecologists have urged for a greater uptake of IPM measures since the 1970s, in light of the environmentally and socially harmful effects of conventional crop protection practices.

Following last year's EU Commission restrictions on three neonicotinoid pesticides, which have been linked to health effects on bees, and greater public awareness of pollinator decline in general in recent years, the UK government released its draft Pollinator Strategy in March. The policy identifies IPM as a key concept.

Critics in the environmental movement and an influential committee of MPs overseeing the government’s policy, designed to support insect pollinators and tackle population declines, have both expressed concern over the planned strategy. As well as questioning the role pesticide manufacturers enjoy in Defra's plans, critics have called on the government to supply a definition of integrated pest management, without which, they warn, the term will be useless.    

In response to the government's plans, organic farming group the Soil Association said, "In practice, IPM means different things to different people; it is nowhere codified or set down in legal instruments, in contrast to organic standards."

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