Alternative food promotes broad mite control on chilli pepper plants

Marcus V A Duarte,Arne Janssen,Fredy A Rodríguez-Cruz,Madelaine Venzon,Angelo Pallini,Marilia C De S Bittencourt

doi:10.1007/s10526-015-9688-x

Marcus V A Duarte, Arne Janssen + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-015-9688-x

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Abstract

Many omnivorous arthropods are important natural enemies because they can feed on plant-provided pollen and several prey species, and thus persist in crops even in the absence of the target pest. Hence, populations of these predators can be established in a crop by providing alternative food, thus increasing biological control. We investigated how alternative food affects broad mite (Polyphagotarsonemus latus) control on chilli pepper plants by predatory mites. The predatory mite Amblyseius herbicolus had high oviposition and population growth rates when fed with cattail pollen, chilli pepper pollen and bee-collected pollen, and a low rate on the alternative prey Tetranychus urticae. Supplementing pepper plants with pollen resulted in better control of broad mite populations. Release of A. herbicolus on young plants with weekly addition of honeybee pollen until plants produce flowers seems a viable strategy to sustain populations of this predator, thus protecting young, vulnerable plants from broad mite infestations.

Highlights

Many important natural enemies in biological control feed on both plant material and prey, for example, predatory bugs (Bonte and De Clercq 2011; Pumarino et al 2012; Wong and Frank 2013), ladybugs (Burgio et al 2006; Amaral et al 2013), lacewings (Venzon et al 2006; Morgado et al 2014) and predatory mites
Plants with flowers or honeybee pollen had the highest numbers of predators, followed by plants infested with T. urticae (Fig. 2a)
A. herbicolus reached the highest oviposition rates when the mites were feeding on pollen and lower when feeding on T. urticae

Summary

Introduction

Many important natural enemies in biological control feed on both plant material and prey, for example, predatory bugs (Bonte and De Clercq 2011; Pumarino et al 2012; Wong and Frank 2013), ladybugs (Burgio et al 2006; Amaral et al 2013), lacewings (Venzon et al 2006; Morgado et al 2014) and predatory mites (van Rijn and Tanigoshi 1999; Goleva and Zebitz 2013). Many plants offer food for natural enemies, such as extrafloral nectar and pollen (Wackers et al 2005). The presence of these alternative foods can increase biological control of plant pests by natural enemies (Ramakers 1990; van Rijn et al 2002; Messelink et al 2008; Rezende et al 2014). Other, non-pest, herbivores can serve as alternative food for predators (Langer and Hance 2004; Park et al 2011; Goleva and Zebitz 2013). The release of non-pest herbivorous mites as alternative food has already shown its potential as strategy to improve biocontrol (English-Loeb et al 1993; Karban et al 1994)

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