Torymus sinensis local and regional early population dynamics in the Insubrian and Piedmont regions

The study area extends from the Cuneo region (Piedmont, Italy) to southern Switzerland. In order to provide a complete range of data covering the entire process from the pest arrival to complete biological control by its natural enemy T. sinensis, a space-for-time substitution approach has been adopted so as to create a temporal gradient of the epidemic stages over the whole study area.

The southernmost Swiss sites roughly represent the arrival and establishment of the pest without the presence of the natural enemy, the central ones the early epidemic stage and the epidemic peak, whereas the northern ones the end of the epidemic with the beginning of the biocontrol. The Italian ones represent the beginning of the equilibrium between the two population as well as the situation with stable T. sinensis populations on the long term.