Energy budgets of the Chinese green lacewing (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) and its potential for biological control of the cotton aphid (Homoptera: Aphididae)

Abstract

Energy budgets of larval stages of the Chinese green lacewing, Chrysopa sinica (Tjeder) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) were determined under laboratory conditions at photoperiod of 14:10 L:D, 27 ± 1 o C and 75% ± 2% RH. The energy used as ingestion, assimilation, respiration, productivity and feces was constructed for each developmental stage. In addition, under these experimental conditions, the potential of C. sinica as a biological control agent was evaluated according to the ingestion by this predator and the energy content of cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii (Glover) (Homoptera: Aphididae). The larval stage of C. sinica was able to consume 1281.4 1-day-old aphids, 1018.7 2-day-old aphids, 626.9 3-day-old aphids, 393.5 4-day-old aphids, 312.1 5-day-old aphids or 203.5 9-day-old aphids, respectively. No significant difference was detected between the estimated number of aphids consumed by the lacewings using energetic methods and the actual number of aphids consumed by the lacewings in this experiment. Our results showed that C. sinica is an important natural enemy of the cotton aphid, and energetic methods are very useful to quantify biological control efficacy of natural enemies.

Elevated CO2 lessens predation of Chrysopa sinica on Aphis gossypii

“…Hu et al (1994) observed that third-instar C. sinica can consume about 137 aphids day )1 in the field. Gao et al (2007) found that C. sinica was able to consume 627 3-day-old aphids during the larval stage in a laboratory setting. However, no studies have examined the predatory ability of C. sinica on cotton aphids under elevated CO 2 levels.…”

An energy budget approach for evaluating the biocontrol potential of cotton aphid (Aphis gossypii) by the ladybeetle Propylaea japonica

“…Furthermore, knowledge of the energetics of an individual or a population permits development of theories concerning efficiencies, foraging strategies, and evolution (Wiegert & Petersen, 1983). Hence, estimating the energy budgets or dynamics of predator and prey has the potential not only to assess the utilization efficiency of prey by predators but also to estimate the potential of a predator as a biological control agent (Du et al., 2003; Gao et al., 2007, 2008a). However, energy budgets, utilization efficiency, and biological control potentials have not yet been extensively studied, especially not in the context of ecological efficiency.…”

“…This, in turn, will depend on the productive capacity of the prey, as well as the nature of the equilibrium among the different life history stages of the prey (Wiegert & Petersen, 1983). The relationship between production and respiratory energy losses in insect populations associated with age structure and life history has attracted considerable interest recently (Gao et al., 2007, 2008a).…”

“…Growth productivity (Pg). The following formula (Wiegert, 1976; Gao et al., 2007) was used to calculate the growth productivity (Pg) of ladybeetles and aphids: where ΔB is the difference between initial and final biomass of each stage multiplied by the caloric value, and E is the biomass of exuviae multiplied by the caloric value for each stage.…”

“…Respiration (R). Measurements of O 2 consumption rate were made in a Gilson single valve differential respirometer (IGRP‐14; Gilson Medical Electronics, Paris, France) with a water bath controlled at 27 ± 0.2 °C as described by Gao et al. (2007).…”