First record of \u3ci\u3eParatelenomus saccharalis\u3c/i\u3e (Dodd, 1914) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) a natural enemy of the invasive species \u3ci\u3eBrachyplatys subaeneus\u3c/i\u3e (Westwood, 1837) (Heteroptera: Plataspidae) in Panama and the Neotropical region

Paratelenomus saccharalis (Dodd) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) parasitizing Brachyplatys subaeneus (Westwood) eggs is reported for the first time for Panama. Brachyplatys subaeneus is an invasive species from Asia and is regarded as an important agricultural pest in the Americas. The family Plataspidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) contains 66 genera and 606 species described (Rider et al. 2018), all distributed in the Old World, with the greatest diversity in Asia and Africa. Within this family, the genus Brachyplatys Boisduval, 1835 (Heteroptera: Plataspidae) has an Asian distribution with about 50 described species. The species Brachyplatys subaeneus (Westwood, 1837) is distributed in the Indo-Malay biogeographic region, being reported from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and is apparently restricted to tropical and subtropical humid deciduous forests (Rédei 2016). Brachyplatys subaeneus has been reported in the Americas from Panama (Aiello et al. 2016), the Dominican Republic (Pérez-Gelabert et al. 2019), Costa Rica (Carmona-Ríos 2019), Ecuador (Añino et al. 2020), and the United States (Eger et al. 2020). In Panama, B. subaeneus was initially identified using molecular methods by Aiello et al. (2016) as Brachyplatys vahlii (Fabricius, 1787). However, Rédei (2016) correctly identified the species morphologically as B. subaeneus. This invasive species is a pest in various legume crops (Fabaceae), including Cajanus cajan (L.) Huth. (Fabaceae), and because it lacks natural enemies in Latin America, could multiply exponentially, affecting legumes on a wide scale (Eger et al. 2020). More research is needed on this crop (Gálvez et al. 2022). A recent survey of pests in Cajanus cajan discovered an egg parasitoid of B. subaeneus. Johnson (1996) reported known hosts for an egg parasitoid, Paratelenomus saccharalis (Dodd, 1914) (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae), which includes Brachyplatys subaeneus and Megacopta cribraria (Fabricius, 1798) (Heteroptera: Plataspidae). The objective of this paper is to report on an egg parasitoid of Brachyplatys subaeneus in Panama, and to recommend it as a potential biological control agent for this species

Sugarcane stem borers of the Colombian Cauca River Valley: current pest status, biology, and control

Citation: Vargas, G., Gomez, L. A., & Michaud, J. P. (2015). Sugarcane stem borers of the Colombian Cauca River Valley: current pest status, biology, and control. Florida Entomologist, 98(2), 728-735. Retrieved from ://WOS:000356451400049Sugarcane stem borers of the genus of Diatraea (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) form a species complex that causes serious economic losses to sugarcane production in the Cauca River Valley and other regions of Colombia. Two primary species, Diatraea saccharalis (F.) and D. indigenella Dyar and Heinrich, have been effectively managed for more than 4 decades through augmentative releases of the tachinid flies Lydella minense (Townsend) and Billaea claripalpis (Wulp) (Diptera: Tachinidae) and the egg parasitoid Trichogramma exiguum Pinto & Platner (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae). Here we review the current pest status of Diatraea species, damage assessment protocols, management tactics, and the environmental factors and cultural practices that can affect biological control outcomes. Recent changes in the cultivars grown have the potential to increase pest populations and diminish biological control efficacy. Additionally, recent outbreaks of new Diatraea species may further increase overall pest pressure. Thus, there is a need to develop supplementary tactics for the management of these pests that will be compatible with biological control, as well as more reliable protocols for assessing host plant resistance against the increase in infestation intensity

Constraining the pˉ/p\bar{p}/p Ratio in TeV Cosmic Rays with Observations of the Moon Shadow by HAWC

An indirect measurement of the antiproton flux in cosmic rays is possible as the particles undergo deflection by the geomagnetic field. This effect can be measured by studying the deficit in the flux, or shadow, created by the Moon as it absorbs cosmic rays that are headed towards the Earth. The shadow is displaced from the actual position of the Moon due to geomagnetic deflection, which is a function of the energy and charge of the cosmic rays. The displacement provides a natural tool for momentum/charge discrimination that can be used to study the composition of cosmic rays. Using 33 months of data comprising more than 80 billion cosmic rays measured by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we have analyzed the Moon shadow to search for TeV antiprotons in cosmic rays. We present our first upper limits on the $\bar{p}/p$ fraction, which in the absence of any direct measurements, provide the tightest available constraints of $\sim1\%$ on the antiproton fraction for energies between 1 and 10 TeV.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Physical Review

Measurement of the Crab Nebula Spectrum Past 100 TeV with HAWC

We present TeV gamma-ray observations of the Crab Nebula, the standard reference source in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy, using data from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-Ray Observatory. In this analysis we use two independent energy-estimation methods that utilize extensive air shower variables such as the core position, shower angle, and shower lateral energy distribution. In contrast, the previously published HAWC energy spectrum roughly estimated the shower energy with only the number of photomultipliers triggered. This new methodology yields a much improved energy resolution over the previous analysis and extends HAWC's ability to accurately measure gamma-ray energies well beyond 100 TeV. The energy spectrum of the Crab Nebula is well fit to a log parabola shape $\left(\frac{dN}{dE} = \phi_0 \left(E/\textrm{7 TeV}\right)^{-\alpha-\beta\ln\left(E/\textrm{7 TeV}\right)}\right)$ with emission up to at least 100 TeV. For the first estimator, a ground parameter that utilizes fits to the lateral distribution function to measure the charge density 40 meters from the shower axis, the best-fit values are $\phi_o$=(2.35$\pm$0.04$^{+0.20}_{-0.21}$)$\times$10$^{-13}$ (TeV cm$^2$ s)$^{-1}$, $\alpha$=2.79$\pm$0.02$^{+0.01}_{-0.03}$, and $\beta$=0.10$\pm$0.01$^{+0.01}_{-0.03}$. For the second estimator, a neural network which uses the charge distribution in annuli around the core and other variables, these values are $\phi_o$=(2.31$\pm$0.02$^{+0.32}_{-0.17}$)$\times$10$^{-13}$ (TeV cm$^2$ s)$^{-1}$, $\alpha$=2.73$\pm$0.02$^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$, and $\beta$=0.06$\pm$0.01$\pm$0.02. The first set of uncertainties are statistical; the second set are systematic. Both methods yield compatible results. These measurements are the highest-energy observation of a gamma-ray source to date.Comment: published in Ap

Very high energy particle acceleration powered by the jets of the microquasar SS 433

SS 433 is a binary system containing a supergiant star that is overflowing its Roche lobe with matter accreting onto a compact object (either a black hole or neutron star). Two jets of ionized matter with a bulk velocity of $\sim0.26c$ extend from the binary, perpendicular to the line of sight, and terminate inside W50, a supernova remnant that is being distorted by the jets. SS 433 differs from other microquasars in that the accretion is believed to be super-Eddington, and the luminosity of the system is $\sim10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$. The lobes of W50 in which the jets terminate, about 40 pc from the central source, are expected to accelerate charged particles, and indeed radio and X-ray emission consistent with electron synchrotron emission in a magnetic field have been observed. At higher energies (>100 GeV), the particle fluxes of $\gamma$ rays from X-ray hotspots around SS 433 have been reported as flux upper limits. In this energy regime, it has been unclear whether the emission is dominated by electrons that are interacting with photons from the cosmic microwave background through inverse-Compton scattering or by protons interacting with the ambient gas. Here we report TeV $\gamma$-ray observations of the SS 433/W50 system where the lobes are spatially resolved. The TeV emission is localized to structures in the lobes, far from the center of the system where the jets are formed. We have measured photon energies of at least 25 TeV, and these are certainly not Doppler boosted, because of the viewing geometry. We conclude that the emission from radio to TeV energies is consistent with a single population of electrons with energies extending to at least hundreds of TeV in a magnetic field of $\sim16$~micro-Gauss.Comment: Preprint version of Nature paper. Contacts: S. BenZvi, B. Dingus, K. Fang, C.D. Rho , H. Zhang, H. Zho

All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured by the HAWC experiment from 10 to 500 TeV

We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory in the energy range 10 to 500 TeV. HAWC is a ground based air-shower array deployed on the slopes of Volcan Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, Mexico, and is sensitive to gamma rays and cosmic rays at TeV energies. The data used in this work were taken from 234 days between June 2016 to February 2017. The primary cosmic-ray energy is determined with a maximum likelihood approach using the particle density as a function of distance to the shower core. Introducing quality cuts to isolate events with shower cores landing on the array, the reconstructed energy distribution is unfolded iteratively. The measured all-particle spectrum is consistent with a broken power law with an index of $-2.49\pm0.01$ prior to a break at $(45.7\pm0.1$) TeV, followed by an index of $-2.71\pm0.01$. The spectrum also respresents a single measurement that spans the energy range between direct detection and ground based experiments. As a verification of the detector response, the energy scale and angular resolution are validated by observation of the cosmic ray Moon shadow's dependence on energy.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, submission to Physical Review