{"id":177978,"date":"2023-05-22T09:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T19:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=177978"},"modified":"2023-05-22T10:46:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T20:46:39","slug":"hawaii-coffee-may-rest-on-wings-of-a-wasp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/05\/22\/hawaii-coffee-may-rest-on-wings-of-a-wasp\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope of Hawai\u02bbi\u2019s coffee industry may rest on wings of a wasp"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_177975\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-177975\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-1.jpg\" alt=\"wasp\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-177975\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-177975\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Close up of <em>Phymastichus coffea<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the coming months, <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> coffee growers will have their very own tiny version of Marvel\u2019s superhero, Wasp. Virtually invisible to the naked eye, <em>Phymastichus coffea<\/em> (<em>P. coffea<\/em>), a minute parasitic wasp, targets the coffee berry borer (<abbr>CBB<\/abbr>), which causes severe yield losses coffee-growing regions world-wide.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers in the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources\u2019 (<abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr>) <a href=\"https:\/\/cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/PEPS\">Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences<\/a> (<abbr>PEPS<\/abbr>) and <abbr>USDA-ARS<\/abbr> (Agricultural Research Service) plan to deploy thousands of these wasps in coffee-growing areas on <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island and possibly Maui and <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This biological control agent has the potential to make significant positive economic impacts in the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> coffee industry, and offers an environmentally safe way to manage <abbr>CBB<\/abbr>,&rdquo; said Professor and Extension Entomologist Mark Wright. &ldquo;The <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> coffee industry is economically and culturally significant, and we hope that this work will improve the lives of many people associated with the industry.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">ÌÇÐÄVlog¹Ù·½<\/abbr> News story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2013\/02\/12\/summit-aims-to-fight-serious-coffee-pest\/\">Summit aims to fight serious coffee pest<\/a>, February 12, 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>An inside agent<\/h2>\n<p><em>P. coffea<\/em> is a parasitoid. Unlike parasites that live and feed on a living host organism, this insect\u2019s larvae will eventually kill their hosts. When <abbr>CBB<\/abbr> pests dig into live fruit, such as coffee beans, they release chemicals that attract the wasp. As a biological control agent, it has been used successfully for a number of years in Central and South America, especially Colombia.<\/p>\n<p>Starting in 2018, live shipments of the wasp were allowed to come into <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> under strict quarantine for research&#8212;specifically for testing on native insects similar to <abbr>CBB<\/abbr>, such as those in the same subfamily as <abbr>CBB<\/abbr>, to assure that no unintended impacts on native species are likely to occur, as well as other non-native invasive species in the same genus as <abbr>CBB<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, Wright and <abbr>PEPS<\/abbr> graduate students David Honsberger and Luis Aristizabal, along with Marisa Wall and Peter Follett from the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, have been inching closer and closer to their ultimate goal: releasing thousands of these wasps into coffee-growing regions in the state where <abbr>CBB<\/abbr> has ravaged farms.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;<abbr>CBB<\/abbr> arrived in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> without the natural enemies that keep populations in check in its native range in Africa,&rdquo; said Follett. &ldquo;The introduction of the African parasitoid wasp <em>Phymastichus coffea<\/em> will reunite <abbr>CBB<\/abbr> with its most significant natural enemy from home. Releases of this wasp in coffee in Colombia against <abbr>CBB<\/abbr> have been shown to limit populations to subeconomic levels.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Unleash the wasps<\/h2>\n<p>With approval from the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and permit from <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Department of Agriculture to bring consignments of <em>P. coffea<\/em> over from Colombia, the current plan is to hold and breed the wasps in quarantine for at least two generations to ensure they are a pure colony with no contaminants or diseases. Then, <abbr>PEPS<\/abbr> and <abbr>ARS<\/abbr> will mass produce the wasps and release them into the field.<\/p>\n<p>Wright said that the wasps will fly free, hopefully become permanently established in release locations, then distribute further throughout coffee growing areas in the state. They will likely be released first in the <span aria-label=\"KaU\">Ka&#699;&#363;<\/span> area of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> Island, then possibly expand to Kona, the Waialua area of <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> and Maui.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If all goes according to plan, it\u2019ll make a massive impact,&rdquo; said Wright.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu\/NewsLetter\/ArtMID\/52574\/ArticleID\/2729\/P-Coffea-vs-CBB\">Read the full story at the <abbr>CTAHR<\/abbr> website.<\/a><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_177976\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-177976\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-2.jpg\" alt=\"two men looking at container\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-177976\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-2.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/manoa-ctahr-wasp-2-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-177976\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Wright and Luis Aristizabal examine coffee berry borer in the cages.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>Phymastichus coffea<\/em> wasps are a long-time enemy of coffee berry borer pests and could limit the pests\u2019 populations and impacts in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[222,212,1363,1314,359,73,9],"class_list":["post-177978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-plant-and-environmental-protection-sciences","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177978"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177980,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177978\/revisions\/177980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}