Pollen as an alternative or supplementary food for the mirid predator Macrolophus pygmaeus

Abstract

For the mass production of the mirid predator Macrolophus pygmaeus eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella are routinely used as an effective but expensive factitious food. In the current study, the potential of pollen as a supplementary food for M. pygmaeus was investigated. In a first experiment, the minimum amount of E. kuehniella eggs needed for optimal development and reproduction was determined to be 40 eggs per individual per 3 days. Then, different amounts of E. kuehniella eggs were offered to individual nymphs, supplemented or not with frozen moist honeybee pollen. Insects reared on only 10 E. kuehniella eggs per 3 days suffered higher mortality, developed slower and had lower adult weights and oocyte counts than insects reared on 40 E. kuehniella eggs or 10 eggs supplemented with pollen. When the nymphs were fed only pollen, survival rates and oocyte production were lower than when both pollen and flour moth eggs were provided. On pollen alone, ca. 80% of the nymphs successfully reached adulthood; their adult weights and oocyte counts were respectively 12% and 32% lower compared with individuals fed optimal amounts of flour moth eggs. When an egg yolk-based artificial diet was supplemented with bee pollen, development and fecundity were better than on the artificial diet alone. The practical implications of pollinivory for the mass production and the use of this beneficial insect in augmentative biological control programs are discussed.

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

“…However, this study was not the first of its kind for N. tenuis and M. pygmaeus. Previous studies have demonstrated that both M. pygmaeus and N. tenuis feed on M. persicae under laboratory conditions Lykouressis 2002a, b, 2004;Valderrama et al 2007;Fantinou et al 2008Fantinou et al , 2009Vandekerkhove and De Clercq 2010). The three species tested in this study showed a higher predation rate and preference for smaller prey instars, which was also observed by Valderrama et al (2007) for N. tenuis and by Fantinou et al (2009) for M. pygmaeus.…”

Apparent competition between major pests reduces pest population densities on tomato crop, but not yield loss

“…Similarly, Harwood et al (2007) showed that the control of a target pest species by naturally occurring generalist predators in soybean fields was sometimes improved by the presence of alternative prey. Smaller-scale experiments have shown that polyphagous predators benefit from a mixed diet, either through an alternative prey (Liu et al 2006;Messelink et al 2008Messelink et al , 2010Calvo et al 2011) or an alternative plant resource (Evans et al 1999;Van Rijn et al 2002;Nomikou et al 2010;Vandekerkhove and De Clercq 2010). However, both positive and negative enemymediated indirect interactions have been reported between co-occurring prey or host species (Prasad and Snyder 2006;Kuusk and Ekbom 2010;Tack et al 2011).…”

Role of Quantity of Additional Food to Predators as a Control in Predator–Prey Systems with Relevance to Pest Management and Biological Conservation

“…This is not just a mathematical curiosity but many experiments (Azzouz et al 2004;Beach et al 2003;Siekmann et al 2001;Vandekerkhove and De Clercq 2010;Wade et al 2008;Wu et al 2008) done on biological control indicate that quantity variation has direct implications on the efficacy of the management strategies. So, a study in this direction is of more practical relevance.…”