Potential for intraguild predation and competition among predatory Coccinellidae and Chrysopidae

Abstract

In a laboratory study two coccinellid species, Coleomegilla maculata (DeGeer) and Harmonia axyridis Pallas, completed preimaginal development on lacewing eggs, Chrysoperla carnea Stephens or pea aphids, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris) in similar times. Preimaginal survival on C. carnea eggs was similar to survival on A. pisum for all stages of C. maculata and H. axyridis. Coccinellid adults that developed on C. carnea eggs were smaller than adults reared on A. pisum. Coccinella septempunctata L. did not complete preimaginal development on C. carnea eggs. Chrysoperla carnea preimaginal developmental time was approximately 20 days when fed either C. maculata eggs or A. pisum. Chrysoperla carnea fed C. maculata eggs developed into smaller adults, compared to adults reared as larvae on A. pisum, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) eggs, or A. pisum alternated daily with O. nubilalis eggs. C. carnea did not complete preimaginal development on H. axyridis eggs. Cannibalism occurred more frequently between C. carnea third instars than between C. maculata fourth instars. When a C. carnea third instar was paired with a C. maculata fourth instar, more C. maculata were preyed upon by C. carnea, regardless of the herbivorous prey density. In the field these two predator species may negatively affect each other and reduce their suppression of pest densities.

Occurrence of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in field crops

“…H. axyridis larvae are able to reach the adult stage in the absence of aphids by feeding on alternative prey. The alternative food can be pollen (Berkvens et al, 2008) or other aphidophagous predators such as Coccinella septempunctata, Adalia bipunctata, Propylea quatuordecimpunctata or Episyrphus balteatus (Phoofolo & Obrycki, 1998;Wells et al, 2010;Hautier et al, 2011;Ingels & De Clercq, 2011). We observed H. axyridis feeding on syrphid and coccinellid pupae, and Colorado beetle larvae in potato crops.…”

“…axyridis has the ability to colonize new habitats and is a very competitive species, being frequently reported as a predator of native species (Phoofolo & Obrycki, 1998;Sloggett et al, 2009;Wells et al, 2010;Ingels & De Clercq, 2011). With the increase in the abundance of H. axyridis there have been reports of a decline in the abundance of native aphidophagous ladybirds (Adalia bipunctata Linné) (Ottart, 2005;Roy et al, 2012).…”

Predators and parasitoids of the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, in its native range and invaded areas

“…Many laboratory assays indicate its higher toxicity and/or unpalatability compared to other members of aphidophagous guilds (ladybirds, lacewings) (Phoofolo and Obrycki 1998;Cottrell 2004;Sato and Dixon 2004;Kajita et al 2010;Nedvȇd et al 2010). Further protection of the larvae is provided by spiny projections on their cuticle.…”

Laboratory studies on intraguild predation and cannibalism among coccinellid larvae (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae)

“…This was possibly due to (i) the low mobility of well fed larvae resulting in them encountering one another less frequently (Agarwala & Dixon, 1992;Dixon, 2000); (ii) a faster rate of growth of the intraguild prey (Lucas, 2005) and (iii) an increase in food selectivity as aphids are qualitatively better and may be less risky in terms of being attacked and eaten compared to intraguild prey (Schoener, 1971;Pastorok, 1980;Ernsting & van der Werf, 1988;Montserrat et al, 2006). Previous works on ladybirds (Kajita et al, 2000), lacewings (Phoofolo & Obrycki, 1998) and pentatomids (De Clercq et al, 2003) report a reduction in IGP when extraguild prey was present in the experimental arena. When the same larval stages are paired a reduction in IGP by H. axyridis is reported for the hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus DeGeer (from 100 to 5% of second instar larvae by adding 30 pea aphids) (Ingels & De Clercq, 2011) and A. bipunctata (from 76 to 60% in 24 h by adding 50 cowpea aphids) (Kajita et al, 2000).…”