Abstract
Editorial: Ecosystem Services and Disservices Provided by Plant-Feeding Predatory Arthropods
Highlights
Omnivorous arthropods are important components of natural and agricultural settings, capable of exploiting both animal and plant food (Coll and Guershon, 2002)
Among omnivorous arthropods, certain zoophytophagous predators have been shown to engage in plant-mediated interactions between microbes and herbivores (e.g., Battaglia et al, 2013; Prieto et al, 2017; Pappas et al, 2018) and to be strongly affected by plant-related factors such as nutritional quality and/or plant defense traits
Despite the importance and wide distribution of omnivorous predators in diverse ecosystems, research so far has mainly focused on their predation potential against key pests of crops. This Research Topic includes studies that aim to understand and potentially improve ecosystem services provided by omnivorous arthropods
Summary
Omnivorous arthropods are important components of natural and agricultural settings, capable of exploiting both animal and plant food (Coll and Guershon, 2002). Pollen provisioning was shown to result in reduced dispersal of A. limonicus, and to favor their predatory performance on spider mites suggesting that plant-based food sources may expand the range of prey species plant-feeding predators can exploit, while increasing their efficiency in biological control. Results suggest that flowering plants can prolong larval survival and adult longevity when prey is absent and that sugar feeding results in adults of high lipid content These findings highlight the role of non-prey foods in sustaining predator populations and could be useful in managing functional biodiversity in agricultural settings
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