Plant damage to vegetable crops by zoophytophagous mirid predators

Castañé, Cristina; Arnó, Judit; Gabarra, Rosa; Alomar, Òscar

doi:10.1016/j.biocontrol.2011.03.007

Cited by 220 publications

(237 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Zoophytophagous or plant feeding predators constitute a special case of generalist predators. Generalist zoophytophagous predators can use various food resources, such as alternative prey, and can feed on plant material, which further facilitates their establishment prior to pest infestation and their maintenance in the crop during periods of prey scarcity, resulting in crop systems that are more resilient to pest invasions (Ramakers and Rabasse 1995;Messelink et al 2008;Castañé et al 2011;Urbaneja et al 2012). These special features result in one of the most important challenges currently in biological control, which is the search and selection of generalist zoophytophagous predators (Bueno et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for predatory mirid bugs as biocontrol agents of aphids in sweet peppers

Pérez‐Hedo

2014

J Pest Sci

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In recent years, biological control strategies to control many major horticultural pests have been successfully implemented in the Eastern Mediterranean basin. However, the management of some pests, such as aphids in sweet pepper crops, can still be improved. The goal of this study was to examine the potential of the omnivorous predatory mirids Nesidiocoris tenuis, Macrolophus pygmaeus, and Dicyphus maroccanus as biocontrol agents of aphids in sweet pepper crops. First, the capacity to detect Myzus persicae-infested and un-infested plants was studied in a Y-tube olfactometer. Females of the three species of predatory mirids were strongly attracted to the odor of infested M. persicae plants. Second, the prey suitability of young and mature nymphs of M. persicae for these three mirid species was studied. The three species actively preyed on M. persicae, although D. maroccanus resulted the most voracious species preying both young and mature nymphs. Finally, the capacity of the three omnivorous predators to reduce M. persicae in heavily infested plants was determined in semi-field conditions. The three species of mirids could reproduce on aphids and establish on sweet pepper plants. Mirids significantly reduced the number of M. persicae per leaf, reaching levels of aphid reduction close to 100 % when compared to the untreated control. These results suggest that mirids might play a major role in aphid management in sweet peppers. The potential implementation methods of predatory mirids for the biological control in sweet peppers are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for predatory mirid bugs as biocontrol agents of aphids in sweet peppers

Pérez‐Hedo

2014

J Pest Sci

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“…During the last decade, biological control programs using 492 mirids (Calvo et al 2012a), which can feed on both plant 493 tissues and insect prey (Castañé et al 2011), have been 494 effectively implemented in greenhouse tomatoes and other 495 crops. To date, the success of these predators has been 496 mainly attributed to their efficient predation of a wide 497 range of important pests Calvo et al 498 2012b;P érez-Hedo and Urbaneja 2014) and to their phy-499 tophagy (Calvo et al 2009), which allows them to become 500 established prior to pest appearance and to maintain their 501 populations in periods of prey scarcity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ABA pathway is mainly acti-548 vated in response to abiotic stresses such as water stress or 549 desiccation (Kahn et al 1993;Maskin et al 2001;Ramirez 550 et al 2009). Therefore, the ABA pathway signaling acti-551 vated by N. tenuis could simply be the response of the 552 tomato plant to water-content reduction (and logically 553 other supplementary nutrients) caused by feeding of N. 554 tenuis, which is mostly detectable in the form of necrotic 555 rings in the apical stems of the plant (Castañé et al 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Defensive plant responses induced by Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hemiptera: Miridae) on tomato plants

et al. 2015

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8 Abstract In the last decade, biological control programs 9 for greenhouse tomatoes and other crops have been suc-10 cessfully implemented using zoophytophagous plant bugs 11 (Miridae), which can feed on both plant tissues and insect 12 prey. It is well known that plants respond to herbivore 13 attacks by releasing volatile compounds through diverse 14 pathways triggered by phytohormones. These herbivore-15 induced plant volatiles can alert neighboring plants, repel 16 or attract herbivores, and attract natural enemies of these 17 herbivores. Nevertheless, the possible benefits of induced 18 plant responses by zoophytophagous predators that could 19 add to their usefulness as biocontrol agents have not been 20 studied until now. Here we show that the zoophytophagous 21 predator Nesidiocoris tenuis activated abscisic acid and 22 jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathways in tomato plants, 23 which made them less attractive to the whitefly Bemisia 24 tabaci, a major tomato pest worldwide, and more attractive 25 to the whitefly parasitoid, Encarsia formosa. We also found 26 that intact tomato plants exposed to volatiles from N. ten-27 uis-punctured plants activated the JA pathway, and as a 28 consequence, E. formosa was also attracted to these intact 29 plants with activated defense systems. Thus, our results 30 demonstrate that N. tenuis not only benefits tomato plants 31 directly by entomophagy but also indirectly by phyto-32 phagy, which induces a physiological response in the 33 tomato plant. 38We have proved that the zoophytophagous predator Nesi-39 diocoris tenuis induces plant benefits directly by its ento-40 mophagy and also indirectly by its phytophagy, which 41 induces the attraction of a whitefly parasitoid (Encarsia 42 formosa) and antixenosis to the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. 43 Furthermore, N. tenuis-punctured plants induce plant 44 defenses in intact plants that result in attraction of E. for-45 mosa. Our results might be one reasonable explanation for 46 the great success achieved by N. tenuis as a key biocontrol 47 agent in tomatoes.

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“…Therefore, if considering that M. melanotoma showed a very low selection rate for tomato plants, our data support these of previous studies indicating that M. melanotoma should be considered as a predator most likely not occurring on tomato crops. Therefore, as it has been also reported by Castañé et al (2011), previous studies should be considered as erroneously reporting M. melanotoma on tomato; instead M. pygmaeus should have been reported. Interestingly, M. melanotoma showed a much lower selection rate for tomato than D. viscosa, despite the fact that both plants are characterized by their dense trichomes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Selection of Macrolophus melanotoma between its main non-crop host plant (Dittrichia viscosa) and eggplant, pepper and tomato, in choice experiments

Lykouressis¹,

Perdikis

Kallioras³

2017

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The host plant selection of the predator Macrolophus melanotoma (Costa) (=M. caliginosus Wagner) (Hemiptera: Miridae) was studied between: i) its major non-crop host plant, Dittrichia viscosa L. (W. Greuter) (Asteraceae) and the solanaceous plants eggplant, pepper and tomato, and ii) between eggplant, pepper and tomato, in choice experiments. The experiments were performed in cages where two potted plants without prey were placed. In each replicate, an adult predator was released in the centre of the cage or on the solanaceous plant. The position of the released predator in each cage was recorded at intervals of 20min, 1, 2, and 24h after its introduction. The results showed that M. melanotoma had a high selection preference rate for its origin host plant (D. viscosa) irrespectively of the solanaceous plant that was present in the cage. The experiments investigating the relative preference of M. melanotoma when given access only to solanaceous plants revealed that it preferred eggplant at higher rates than pepper and tomato. These data indicate that M. melanotoma originating from D. viscosa patches might have a very low potential to colonize pepper or tomato crops in the open field. However, its potential to colonize eggplant crops should be further evaluated.

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Plant damage to vegetable crops by zoophytophagous mirid predators

Cited by 220 publications

References 54 publications

Prospects for predatory mirid bugs as biocontrol agents of aphids in sweet peppers

Prospects for predatory mirid bugs as biocontrol agents of aphids in sweet peppers

Defensive plant responses induced by Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hemiptera: Miridae) on tomato plants

Selection of Macrolophus melanotoma between its main non-crop host plant (Dittrichia viscosa) and eggplant, pepper and tomato, in choice experiments

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