Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Scaramozzino, Pier Luigi, Giovanni, Filippo Di, Loni, Augusto, Ricciardi, Renato & Lucchi, Andrea, 2018, Updated list of the insect parasitoids (Insecta, Hymenoptera) associated with Lobesiabotrana (Denis & Schiffermueller, 1775) (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) in Italy. 2. Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Anomaloninae and Campopleginae, ZooKeys 772, pp. 47-95 : 47

Venturia canescens (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Venturia canescens : Marchesini and Dalla Montà 1994: 205, 1998: 3.

Italian distribution of reared parasitoids.

Veneto: Marchesini and Dalla Montà 1994, 1998.

Distribution.

The genus Venturia Schrottky, 1902 is represented by 136 species ( Yu et al. 2012), five of which are present in Europe ( Zwakhals and van Achterberg 2017). Venturia canescens is considered a cosmopolitan species, its distribution being related to grain trade and other stored products. In temperate and tropic areas around the world, it is most often found in buildings where grains or flour are stored ( Carlson 1979).

Host range.

Venturia canescens is a koinobiont endoparasitoid that lives on larvae of various Lepidopteran species feeding on stored goods, such as Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller, 1879), Plodia interpunctella ( Hübner, 1813), Cadra spp. Walker, Apomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller, 1839), Galleria mellonella (Linnaeus, 1758) and Ostrinia nubilalis ( Hübner, 1796) ( Pyralidae ), Nemapogon granella (Linnaeus, 1758) ( Tineidae ), Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873) ( Gelechiidae ), Prays citri Millière, 1873 ( Yponomeutidae ), Grapholita funebrana (Treitschke, 1835) ( Tortricidae ) and some Noctuidae , for a total of 22 host species ( Yu et al. 2012).

Ecological role.

Venturia canescens was first found associated to L. botrana in Veneto by Marchesini and Dalla Montà (1994), who obtained few specimens from the third generation larvae. Thiéry et al. (2001) recorded this species in the Bordeaux region, where females attack the mature caterpillar of EGVM and the larva weaves its pupal cocoon inside or outside of the host’s larval skin ( Villemant et al. 2011). A Venturia sp. also emerged for 3rd generation larvae of L. botrana in the Aegean Region of Turkey ( Koclu et al. 2005). It is considered an occasional parasitoid of L. botrana , of rather marginal importance ( Villemant et al. 2011). Biological, ethological, and morphological information about this species have been provided by Frilli (1965) under the name of Devorgilla canescens .

Taxonomic notes.

This species, very common and with a very wide geographical distribution, has been repeatedly described with different names and assigned to different genera. The list of synonymies and generic combinations is very long and can be found in Frilli (1965), Carlson (1979), Yu and Horstmann (1997), and Yu et al. (2012).