Plant quality effects on intraguild predation between Orius laevigatus and Aphidoletes aphidimyza

Abstract

To understand the influence of plant quality on intraguild predation and consequently on the suppression of a shared prey population as well as on plant yield, the interactions between Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae) (shared prey), Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Rondani) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) (intermediate predator), and Orius laevigatus Fieber (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) (top predator) were investigated in 25-day experiments on cucumber, Cucumis sativus L. (Cucurbitaceae) at various N fertilization levels (90, 150, and 190 p.p.m.) in microcosm set-ups under greenhouse conditions. The final aphid population size was significantly affected by an interactive effect of N fertilization and predator application. Regardless of the N fertilization levels, O. laevigatus alone was more effective in aphid suppression than A. aphidimyza alone. In addition, the risk for aphids of being predated upon by both predators together was significantly reduced in the low and medium-N fertilization levels, whereas it was additive in the high-N fertilization treatment. The A. aphidimyza population was suppressed by O. laevigatus in both the 90 and 150 p.p.m. N treatments. However, there was no intraguild predation of O. laevigatus on A. aphidimyza at the 190 p.p.m. N level. Total plant yield depended on predator treatments and N fertilization levels, with the highest yield produced at the 150 p.p.m. N fertilization level in treatments with either O. laevigatus alone or with both predators together. Our results demonstrate that the weak asymmetric intraguild predation among A. aphidimyza and O. laevigatus does not influence the ability of both predators together to diminish bottom-up effects on aphid populations and the yield losses associated with aphid infestations.

Understanding trophic interactions of Orius spp. (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) in lettuce crops by molecular methods

“…were able to prey on other natural enemies, like phytoseiids, coccinellids, spiders, other hemipterans and even parasitoids . Some were even conducted under field and greenhouse conditions . The species detected within O. majusculus in the present field study were common predators present in lettuce crops of the studied area, like hoverflies, coccinellids and spiders .…”

Biological control of aphids in the presence of thrips and their enemies

“…Because these predatory mites do not kill aphids, and thus do not share prey with the predatory midges, they can be classified as hyperpredators. In contrast, Orius bugs prey on eggs and larvae of A. aphidimyza (Christensen et al 2002;Hosseini et al 2010), but also on aphids (Alvarado et al 1997) and therefore act as intraguild predators. Moreover, they are intraguild predators of parasitoids by preying on parasitized aphids (Snyder and Ives 2003).…”

Compatibility of Orius laevigatus and Cheiracanthium pelasgicum for predation on Helicoverpa armigera eggs: effects of density and day/night activity on intraguild predation

“…Nevertheless, since O laevigatus has been observed as an intraguild predator on a wide range of beneficial arthropods of varying sizes-e.g. Macrolophus pygmaeus (Messelink and Janssen 2014), Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Hosseini et al 2010)-and on predatory mites (Shakya et al 2009), predation on smaller C. pelasgicum instars cannot be ruled out.…”