Plant Species Modulate Plant-Mediated Indirect Effects of Orius Sauteri on Pests Frankliniella Occidentalis and Bemisia Tabaci

Abstract

Exploring the interactions between host plants, herbivores and natural enemies is an important experimental approach to enhance biological control and induced plant defense responses following infestation by herbivores could enable plants to minimize damage. Orius sauteri (Poppius), an important generalist predator, has been widely used as a biological control agent for suppressing many agricultural pests on agronomic and horticultural crops. It is also documented as ovipositing eggs in plant tissues and piercing and sucking as omnivorous predator. We therefore explored the fitness parameters of primary (western flower thrips) and secondary pests (whiteflies) on three different plant species pre-inoculated by O. sauteri. Pre-inoculation of O. sauteri significantly reduced the survival of Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) on tomato and Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on cowpea. The reproduction of B. tabaci on tomato, cucumber and cowpea was affected by O. sauteri in a different manner. The presence of O. sauteri significantly reduced the reproduction of F. occidentalis on tomato and cucumber plants, but there was no significant effect on cowpea plants. This demonstrates that plants with the pre-inoculation of O. sauteri decrease the performance of herbivores on different plant species but to differing degrees. These results further enhance our knowledge of ecological relationships between natural enemies and herbivores, and provide the context for the early release of natural enemies to control pests.

Flavonoid‐producing tomato plants have a direct negative effect on the zoophytophagous biological control agent Orius sauteri

“…In the current study, we assessed the potential nontarget effects of phytochemicals in tomato on a zoophytophagous generalist predator, the flower bug Orius sauteri (Poppius) (Hemiptera: Anthocorid), which is an important biological control agent of whiteflies and many other insect pests in Asia (Yano et al ., 2005; Wang et al ., 2014; Zhao et al ., 2017; Ge et al ., 2020; Di et al ., 2022). In addition to feeding on arthropods, zoophytophagous predators may also feed on plants; consequently, they can provide consistent pest suppression because they are less likely to disperse or starve when herbivores are scarce (Eubanks & Styrsky, 2005).…”