Here I am! Evidence of a Hymenopteran larval parasitoid attacking the Box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis (Walker, 1859) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) in Germany confirmed

Bulletin of Insectology 79: 13-19, doi: 10.3897/bull.insectology.177420

Here I am! Evidence of a Hymenopteran larval parasitoid attacking the Box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis (Walker, 1859) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) in Germany confirmed

Annette Herz^‡, Danilo Lüdke^‡, Matthias Riedel^§

‡ Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Institute for Biological Control, Dossenheim, Germany§ Unaffiliated, Bad Fallingbostel, Germany

Corresponding author: Annette Herz ( annette.herz@julius-kuehn.de )

Academic editor: Maria Luisa Dindo

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Herz A, Lüdke D, Riedel M (2026) Here I am! Evidence of a Hymenopteran larval parasitoid attacking the Box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis (Walker, 1859) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) in Germany confirmed. Bulletin of Insectology 79: 13-19. https://doi.org/10.3897/bull.insectology.177420

Abstract

The box tree pyralid moth (Cydalima perspectalis), which originates from Asia and has been introduced to Europe in 2006, has now infested several countries and continents outside its natural distribution. This herbivore is specialized on Buxus spp. and has destroyed not only many ornamental plantings, which are often of historical value, but also boxwood in its natural range, where it is often part of certain forest types. To date, no effective natural enemies are known, and plantings can only be saved by frequent insecticide applications, while natural boxwoods are threatened or have already gone extinct after massive outbreaks of this pest. During a monitoring in 2025, we discovered a parasitoid population in one of the first infested natural Buxus spp. stands in Europe, the boxwood forest near Grenzach-Wyhlen, Germany. According to our data, this Campoplegine larval parasitoid, Eriborus sp., is not native, but may have been accidentally introduced in the years after the introduction of its host nearby.

Keywords

Adventive biological control, Box tree moth, Buxus spp., parasitoid