Denis Thiery- PhD, HDR
- Research Director at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Denis Thiery
- PhD, HDR
- Research Director at French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
Eco-ethology, biological control and agroecology of grape pests and the invasive hornet vespa velutina
About
473
Publications
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Introduction
Phd and HDR in insect behavioural ecology specialist in plant insect communication and olfaction. During 3 years postdoc in Wageningen, I studied with JH Visser odor perception in the Colorado potato beetle and aphids. At INRA I focussed on European corn borer, honeybee, grape pests and their parasitoids. My current research is on grape pests (physiology/behaviour/ecology/biocontrol/agroecology), grape biodiversity and the hornet V. velutina predator of honeybees (Eco-physiology/control)
Current institution
Current position
- Research Director
Additional affiliations
February 2018 - present
May 1985 - July 1997
July 1997 - January 2007
Education
September 1978 - December 1981
University
Field of study
- Experimental Ecology
September 1974 - July 1978
University
Field of study
- Natural sciences, Biochemistry, Physiology, Ecology
September 1971 - June 1974
Secondary school Benjamin Franklin
Field of study
- Natural sciences, mathematics
Publications
Publications (473)
Slides in french: a synthesis about the instalation of Vespa velutina in western Europe, control and biocontrol options, and some recent research advances
Entomopathogenic fungi are commonly used as biological control agents. Recently, a strain of Metarhizium robertsii (Sorokin, 1883) (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) collected in France was identified as a good candidate for controlling invasive populations of yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Buysson, 1905) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in E...
In most viticulture countries, the grape phylloxera (GP) Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch) (Hemiptera:
Phylloxeridae) is controlled by planting grafted plants on rootstocks resistant to this pest. In the search for alternative
protective methods, the effectiveness of Metarhizium robertsii in protecting non-grafted Vitis vinifera grapevines against...
This extension paper article (In french) questions why 20 years after the entry of Vespa velutina in europe, no real control was achieved and try to understand why populations are still growing up and geographical distribution extends. I discusses the policy and techniques used since 20 years against Vespa velutina. It also discuss some success and...
20years after the introduction of the hornet Vespa velutina in Europe, we attempted in this opinion paper the progress and deceptions in the fight against this harmful predator of honeybees.
Global change is affecting plant-insect interactions in agroecosystems and can have dramatic consequences on yields when causing non-targeted pest outbreaks and threatening the use of pest natural enemies for biocontrol. The vineyard agroecosystem is an interesting system to study multi-stress conditions: on the one hand, agricultural intensificati...
In this study, we presented Lobesia botrana virgin males with females in order for them to be exposed to females’ natural sexual pheromones or cuticular compounds. 12 or 48 h after the exposure of males to either females’ sexual pheromones or cuticular compounds, these males were confronted to naïve females, which have a choice between them or a vi...
BACKGROUND
Bordeaux mixture is a copper‐based fungicide commonly used in vineyards to prevent fungal and bacterial infections in grapevines. However, this fungicide may adversely affect the entomological component, including insect pests. Understanding the impacts of Bordeaux mixture on the vineyard pest Lobesia botrana is an increasing concern in...
Les espèces non-cibles sont exposées à des concentrations variables de pesticides et éléments traces métalliques (ETM) au sein des parcelles viticoles ou à leurs abords. Il s'agit dans cette étude d'évaluer la contamination, le transfert, et la bioaccumulation de pesticides et d'ETM chez un pollinisateur sentinelle de l'environnement et son prédate...
Arthropods represent an entry point for pesticide transfers in terrestrial food webs, and pesticide accumulation in upper chain organisms, such as predators can have cascading consequences on ecosystems. However, the mechanisms driving pesticide transfer and bioaccumulation in food webs remain poorly understood. Here we review the literature on pes...
19 years ago, human trades caused the biological invasion of Vespa velutina in south West France. A single queen was introduced and since then V. velutina spread all over western Europe. In France, the colony’s number is estimated to be between 600,000 and possibly twice more, and in Europe few millions may be expected mostly in France, Spain, Port...
Twenty years after the human introduction of Vespa velutina in Europe, its management seems out of control. The outcome of this invasion was clearly underestimated during the first 5 years and no clear policy was considered. Optimistically some scientists developed the idea of an eradication which we know is probably inconsistent. One first method...
Insect movements are partly governed by landscape context and especially by abundance and spatial configuration of host patches. Drosophila suzukii (DS) is a polyvoltine invasive fruit fly species attacking several plants including grapevine. Our study aims at analyzing how the distribution of alternative host plants in the landscape affects the co...
The introduction in Europe of the yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina in 2004 has been the most success- ful invasion of an eusocial vespid, with dramatic effects on honeybees. Whereas an eradication is almost impossible in mainland, attacks and pressure on beehives are arising. Here we study the efficiency of non-attractive interception traps, so-...
Today, we are faced with an increase in the impact of pesticides on the environment, which is becoming a real concern for most agricultural production systems, including vineyards, for a number of reasons, such as the resistance of pest populations to pesticides, the lethal and sublethal effects of pesticides on non-target species, the increase in...
Decline in species richness as well as changes in community evenness or functional diversity have been hypothesised to jointly affect ecosystem functioning. However, disentangling the relative effects of these changes in community structure is hard as these different aspects often covary with species richness in real‐world ecosystems. In this study...
Pollinators, such as bees, develop flexible memories of colors, patterns, and shapes, for efficient flower recognition. Here we tested whether other flower-foraging insects have evolved similar cognitive abilities underpinning flexible visual learning. We trained wild hornets from two species commonly found in Europe, the invasive yellow-legged hor...
Pesticides used for plant protection can indirectly affect target and non-target organisms and are identified as a major cause of insect decline. Depending on species interactions, pesticides can be transferred into the environment from plants to preys and predators. While the transfer of pesticides is often studied through vertebrate and aquatic e...
We report unpublished data of Colorado Potato Beetle walking orientation studied with a servosphere (often called Kramer bowl) at the University of Wageningen. When varying the intensity of external stimulations (here mechanical by wind and olfactory as host plant odour in wind), we interpreted some typical behaviours in terms of the resultant of i...
expertise report insecticides sugar beet aphids
presentation in French. Present some recent scientific adavances and perspectives in the attempt to control this predator populations.
The use of biological control agents in Integrated Pest Management programs has increased in the last decades, but may be affected by antagonistic effects generated by the accumulation of some pesticides and other chemicals. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of Trichogramma cordubensis (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), a c...
Hornets are the largest of the social wasps, and are important regulators of insect populations in their native ranges. Hornets are also very successful as invasive species, with often devastating economic, ecological and societal effects. Understanding why these wasps are such successful invaders is critical to managing future introductions and mi...
Characterizing the association of endophytic insect pathogenic fungi (EIPF) with plants is an important step in order to understand their ecology before using them in biological control programs. Since several methods are available, it is challenging to identify the most appropriate for such investigations. Here, we used two strains of Metarhizium...
CONTEXT
Assessing the multifunctionality of agroecosystems is crucial to design more sustainable farming systems. While it is known that organic farming benefits biodiversity and ecosystem services, how organic farming affects their multifunctionality, including agronomical, ecological as well as economic dimensions, remains poorly explored.
OBJEC...
here we present few control methods with special focuss on electric traps used at the end of summer to protect hives before winter. Other reserach projects are presented (use of entomopathogenic fungi and bioaccumulation of pesticides via predation of contaminated bees).
In order to reduce insecticide use for crop protection, there is emergency to develop, among different approaches, green pest management based on the ecology knowledge of the cropping system. In that context, using the behavioural ecology knowledge of pest reproduction is an issue for the future century. Crop pests or disease vectors use sensory cu...
Here we report the first detection of Halyomorpha halys (Stål, 1855) in Bordeaux vineyards. The species is native to Eastern Asia and was introduced to France in 2012. Halyomorpha halys is highly polyphagous and causes significant damage to various crops, including grapevines. From 2018 to 2020, Pentatomidae species were collected in vineyards in t...
Pest management strategies relying on agrochemicals could be altered by climate change, because of the temperature-dependent toxicity of the compound involved. Many studies have explored the response of targeted pests to pesticide and temperature. Pesticides are seldom strictly selective and also affect nontarget pests. Surprisingly, the way temper...
Males evolved plastic strategies to respond to male-male competition and exhibit adaptive traits and behaviors maximizing their access to the females and limiting sperm competition. Mating behaviors allow males to express quick responses to current sexual audience, i.e the number of nearby conspecifics prone to mate. In contrast, physiological resp...
Interview published in 'Abeilles et fleurs n° 843' (in french)-
Vespa orientalis was noticed in France few month ago close to Marseille. It was however already present in several southern European country for years and its expansion to France was expected.
Here we discuss the possible interactions with the two other hornets (Velutina and crabro) c...
The transfer of contaminants in trophic networks is of real concern and yet only partially investigated in terrestrial ecosystems. Most biocontrol methods used in agriculture to reduce the use of pesticides are based on the consumption of pests by predatory insects, which are themselves consumed by small mammals and birds. If the trophic chain is c...
The yellow legged hornet Vespa velutina was accidentally introduced in Europe via France. Since 18 years research and practice progressed a lot but we are globally still unable to control this invasion. Here we review success and disappointing results.
In the years 1975-1995 a research consortium with German, Swiss, Italian Spanih and French Scientists developped the mating disruption in grapes. Here we relate some historical facts concerning the French group.
The transfer of contaminants in trophic networks is of real concern and yet only partially investigated in terrestrial ecosystems. Most biocontrol methods used in agriculture to reduce the use of pesticides are based on the consumption of pests by predatory insects, which are themselves consumed by small mammals and birds. If the trophic chain is c...
One of the biggest global challenges for our societies is to provide natural resources to the rapidly expanding population while maintaining sustainable and ecologically friendly products. The increasing public concern about toxic insecticides has resulted in the rapid development of alternative techniques based on natural infochemicals (ICs). ICs...
In European viticulture Mating disruption against the grapes moths Lobesia botrana and Eupoecillia ambiguella is a succes story since the pionering work of a research consortium, France,, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. We present here the progress of MD in french viticulrure and also few keys to improve the progress of this technique in the...
La confusion sexuelle en vigne dans les années 2020, des pistes à travailler pour atteindre les objectifs ecophyto ? Denis Thiéry, Webinaire Ecophyto 4/11/2021
Increasing plant diversity in agricultural systems is a promising way to balance food production and biodiversity conservation. Biological pest control, a crucial ecosystem service delivered by natural enemies, could particularly benefit from increased plant diversity at the local scale. Such positive effects however often depend on the landscape c...
Understanding the response of biodiversity to organic farming is crucial to design more sustainable agriculture. While it is known that organic farming benefits biodiversity on average, large variability in the effects of this farming system exists. Moreover, it is not clear how different practices modulate the performance of organic farming for bi...
Abstract: Understanding the major mechanisms that allow an alien species to become invasive is crucial for limiting the impact of such species, and individual immunity seems to be a crucial trait for their large range colonization when introduced to a new area. Indeed, a high resistance to pathogens and parasites could favour the establishment and...
Daily varying intensities of exposure to infectious enemies should select for the evolution of a daily structure of host immunity with a marked peak and trough (i.e. a daily rhythm). Such nychthemeral variations have been documented for insect inducible immunity (responsiveness to microbial challenge), while the existence of similar daily patterns...
Organisms are increasingly confronted with intense and long-lasting heat waves. In insects, the effects of heat waves on individual performance can vary in magnitude both within (e.g. from one larval instar to another) and between life stages. However, the reasons underlying these stage-dependent effects are not fully understood. There are several...
Grape protection protection against pests and vector insects, from yesterday to future
Denis Thiery (INRAe, UMR save and UMT seven)
Viticulture protection of the 22th Century will be innovative, but challenging. In European viticulture most pest/diseases are results of biological invasions and grape production has a long tradition of pest/disease...
Understanding how community composition of service‐providing organisms affects ecosystem functioning is a key challenge in ecology. Although it has been proposed that taxonomic diversity and functional traits mediate this relationship, how several facets of community structure affect the delivery of key ecosystem services remains to be explored.
In...
Studies at the landscape scale are important to understand insect population and community dynamics. Despite numerous studies on the effects of landscape context on phytophagous insect communities, few studies were conducted on fruit flies and the seasonal variation in the effects of landscape context remains poorly explored. Here, we investigate h...
• Increasing landscape heterogeneity, both in terms of composition and configuration, can promote natural enemies and biological control in agricultural landscapes. However, relatively poor information exists about the effects of landscape heterogeneity on lacewings, which are a major group of predators. Furthermore, temporal changes of landscape e...
Drosophila suzukii is an invasive pest which became a serious threat to stone and berry fruit production in Europe. Knowledge about the host range of this pest and the effect of the succession of available hosts over time is however lacking in vineyard landscapes. Our study aimed to evaluate the host range of D. suzukii throughout the year in a vin...
The European grapevine moth, Lobesia botrana (Denis and Schiffermüller), is an important grape pest worldwide. To forecast how this species might respond to climate change has emerged as one major challenge in recent viticultural research. Predictions about L. botrana population dynamics under global warming scenario are usually derived from physio...
Temperature alters host suitability for parasitoid development through direct and indirect pathways. Direct effects depend on ambient temperatures experienced by a single host individual during its lifetime. Indirect effects (or parental effects) occur when thermal conditions met by a host parental generation affect the way its offspring will inter...
Plants and insects are highly diverse groups due to their ability to exploit a wide range of niches, from the desert to the arctic zone and also almost all the plant species growing on the planet. Plants and insects make up together approximately half of all known species of multicellular organisms. Each plant interacts with insects in a different...
Interview paper, opinion on what is currently optimal (or at least possible to do practically) against V velutina .
Grape moths parasites and parasitoids
En cultures pérennes et particulièrement en vigne, il existe très peu de connaissances sur
les relations entre la proportion d’habitats semi-naturels autour d’une parcelle et le
niveau de régulation des insectes ravageurs. Le projet Biocontrol s’est attaché à étudier
comment la complexité du paysage influençait la régulation des ravageurs, la ri...
Mating disruption against grape lepidopteran pests (grape tortricid moths) is a growing control method often assimilated to Bio control.
The present article presents the technique principle, few historical facts, and discuss the technical requirements and the future progress that could be expected to extend the surfaces treated by mating disruption...
Organic farming is seen as a prototype of ecological intensification able to conciliate crop productivity and biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. However, how natural enemies, an important functional group supporting pest control services, respond to organic farming at different scales and in different landscape contexts remain un...
La préservation de la biodiversité et des services qui lui sont associés sont un enjeu
majeur dans le contexte actuel de réduction des produits phytosanitaires de synthèse
et du changement global. Cependant, la gestion des bio-agresseurs est actuellement
fortement dépendante de l’utilisation des produits phytosanitaires. Afin de trouver
des alterna...
Parasitoids are major biological agents in crop protection, and understanding their preference towards specific host species is a key aspect of successful pest control. In the present study, we have examined the host preferences of the larval parasitoid Campoplex capitator (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), one of the major natural enemies for tortricid...
Vespa velutina is a hornet predator of bees that was accidentally introduced in Europe from East China in 2004. Since its arrival, it expanded through Europe, impacting both biodiversity and beekeeping. As there are currently no biological alternatives to chemical treatment of V. velutina nests, we need more studies on the development of potential...
Hornets and more generally Vespids are efficient invaders. In 2004, one single female of the yellow-legged hornet was accidentally introduced into France, close to Agen (southwest France). During the first three years the threat and the expected consequences were probably not well considered. Currently, most of the French territory is colonized, as...
Biological control by entomopathogenic fungi is a possible alternative to chemical insecticides. As the grapevine moth Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), recently introduced in Argentina, is now the major pest in most of the vineyards in the country despite quarantine regulations, native entomopathogenic fungi could be a preferable alterna...
Organic farming is seen as a prototype of ecological intensification able to conciliate crop productivity and biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. However, how natural enemies, an important functional group supporting pest control services, respond to organic farming at different scales and in different landscape contexts remain un...
The European Food Safety Authority concluded in February 2018 that “most uses of neonicotinoid insecticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees". In 2016, the French government passed a law banning the use of the five neonicotinoids previously authorized: clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, acetamiprid and thiachloprid. In the
framewo...
Research project presented at the SYSNUM (univ Bordeaux) halfway evaluation.
Presentation at the annual general assembly of the beekeeper union, 'le Rucher du perigord' on the 10/03/2019.
The slides are in french
Neonicotinoids have been banned in France. This article (in french) evaluates the limited consequences for french viticulture. Only one neonicotinoid with different formulations is currently used, mainly against leafhoppers.
In this paper we discuss the incidence for viticulture and present reasons motivating the ban.
Aurhors 1 and 4 where experts...
Text in french published by the french Fundation for Research in Biodiversity
text also downloadable at:
http://www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/images/documents/IPBES/IPBES_Frelon.pdf
Literature quoted available on the website
Alarm pheromones are major communication signals in animals and major semiochemicals in the colony organisation of social insects. We investigated the composition of venom in Vespa velutina, an invasive hornet species accidentally introduced into Europe a decade ago. Crushed venom glands were applied to seven wild V. velutina nests and induced aggr...
Mating disruption (MD) is a powerful and sustainable control strategy against different types of mainly Lepidoptera agricultural pests. Since the first large scale trials on oriental fruit moth in Australia (1975), it is used for now more than 30 years against several pest insects, with very good efficiency against tortricid pests (orchards and gra...
While organic farming practices, which are often promoted as models of ecological intensification, generally enhance biodiversity, their effects on the delivery of ecosystem services, such as biological pest control, are still unknown. Here, using a multi‐scale hierarchical design in southwestern France, we examined the effects of organic farming a...
Questions
Questions (3)
I'm looking for literature relating insect detection of entomophagous fungi (olfaction/gustation) ... Sensory physiology or behaviour
Insects flight activity, but also mating and oviposition can be modulated by prior exposures to atmospheric pressure variation. This was already documented in Choristoneura (Miller and Mc Dougall 1973) and in the 1990's by Jeremy Mac Neil (Annual review Entomology), Roitberg et al. (Nature 1993). Several other publications (moths and parasitoids) addressed such effects (see also Barton Browne 1993 Ann Review Entomology). We found such effects in Lobesia botrana (Hurtrell & Thiéry, JIB, 1999) : atm. pressure drops increases flying or oviposition activities.
Does any research currently focus on such effects, or is there further evidence for that ?
Denis Thiéry
