Effect of Four Host Plants of the Two Spotted Spider Mite Tetranychus urticae on the Consumption Rates and Reproductive Biology of the Predator Blaptostethus pallescens Poppius (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) | ||||
| Journal of Applied Plant Protection | ||||
| Article 3, Volume 5, Issue 1, December 2016, Page 23-29 PDF (1.08 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/japp.2016.7587 | ||||
 View on SCiNiTO | ||||
| Author | ||||
| Nesrin El-Basha | ||||
| Department of Biological Control, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Blaptostethus pallescens Poppius (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) is a potential predator on mites and other insects in Maize, Mango and grain warehouses in Egypt. The indirect effect of four vegetable crops; bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), pepper (Capsicum annuum), eggplant (Solanum melongena) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus) as host-plants of the two spotted spider mite (TSSM) Tetranychus urticae Koch on the consumption rate and reproductive biology were studied at 30 ±1˚C and 60 ± 10% R.H. The obtained results revealed that the type of plant had a significant effect on the daily and overall prey consumption of all the nymphal instars and total developmental nymphal periods. The total predation rates of all nymphal instars of B. pallescens were higher with bean leaf plant (552.4 mites) than that of pepper, eggplant and cucumber leaf plants (520.5, 451.8 and 349.2 mites, respectively). The major portion of mortality during the nymphal stage occurred during the first instar in all tested host plants and the higher mortality was recorded when TSSM fed on mites fed cucumber plant, and the lower one was for mites fed on bean plant. The total number of consumed T. urticae nymphs by B. pallescens adult females was significantly different among the four host plants; being higher in bean plant leaves (301.9 mites) and lower on cucumber plant leaves (152.4 mites). Also, the total number of consumed T. urticae nymphs by B. pallescens adult males was significantly different among the four host plants; being higher in bean plant leaves (158.8 mites) and lower on cucumber plant leaves (105.3 mites). Significant differences in adult longevity among the different host plants were observed, the shortest lifetime for females was 17.7 days on cucumber, while the longest lifetime (22.3 days) was recorded with bean. The oviposition period was shortest on cucumber (10.5 days) and longest on bean (17.7days). Meanwhile, the greatest total lifetime fecundity (70.0 eggs/ female) was observed with bean plant, which was significantly higher than on cucumber plant (22.9 eggs/female). The success of B. pallescens as a biological control agent of TSSM seems to be strongly affected by the host plants on which the TSSM were fed on. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Blaptostethus pallescens; Tetranychus urticae; Host plants; biological control; predation; Reproductive biology | ||||
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