Eggs parasitoids and symbionts of two European Thrips.

Megaphragma amalphitanum (Hym. : Trichogrammatidae), a parasitoid of Thrips eggs, was collected for the first time in Portugal and France. The host, H eliothrips haemorrhoidalis (Thy. : Thripidae), and another Thrips species i ntroduced from Africa and belonging to the same family, Hercinothrips femor alis, are abundant in southern France where they present a thelytokous repr oduction. Wolbachia (Bacteria: Rickettsiaceae), symbiotic micro-organisms k nown to induce thelytoky in arthropod species, were discovered in these 2 T hrips species using PCR and ftsZ gene primers. PCR was also positive in M. amalphitanum which is infected by Wolbachia, but which does not present the lytokous reproduction. Further studies will be necessary to prove that the thelytokous reproduction is Wolbachia induced in Thrips, and to compare the symbionts in Thrips and M. amalphitanum. These Wolbachia may be different or not, and in the latter case, a horizontal transfer can explain the prese nce of a same form in the two partners.