Research Scientist Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada London, Ontario, Canada
Molecular analysis of food webs is useful in several areas of pest management. Here I discuss the contribution of molecular tools to expanding public reference databases (BOLD, GenBank), the use of interim taxonomy for undescribed or unidentified species, and the application of forensics to identify multiple trophic levels in a single sample. Examples from my research are presented to highlight the description of parasitoid and hyperparasitoid communities associated with stink bugs and pecan aphids, as well as the application of molecular forensics to identify an unlikely host-parasitoid association in the bagrada bug.
