Abstract
There is an urgent need to develop sustainable pest management systems to protect arable crops in order to replace the current over-reliance on synthetic insecticides. Semiochemicals are insect- or plant-derived chemicals that are used by organisms as information signals. Integrated pest management tools are currently in development that utilise semiochemicals to manipulate the behaviour of pest insects and their natural enemies to provide effective control of pests within the crop. These innovative tools usually require fewer inputs and can involve multiple elements, therefore reducing the likelihood of resistance developing compared with use of synthetic toxicants. We review here the life cycle of the pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus (previously known as Meligethes aeneus) which is a pest insect of oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and describe the current knowledge of any behaviour mediated by semiochemicals in this species. We discuss the behavioural processes where semiochemical-based control approaches may be appropriate and consider how these approaches could be incorporated into an integrated pest management strategy for this important arable crop.
Highlights
The pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus Fab. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is a major pest of oilseed rape (OSR) (Brassica napus L.) crops (Williams 2010)
Over-reliance on these and overuse of this single control strategy has led to B. aeneus populations developing resistance to this class of insecticide (e.g., Hansen 2003; Nauen et al 2012; Zimmer et al 2014)
Insecticides with alternative classes of active ingredients are commercially available (see e.g., HGCA (2012)), alternative ‘ecologically-based’ approaches are needed to increase the sustainability of OSR cropping and to prevent further development of resistance (Cook and Denholm 2008)
Summary
The pollen beetle Brassicogethes aeneus Fab. (synonym Meligethes aeneus) (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is a major pest of oilseed rape (OSR) (Brassica napus L.) crops (Williams 2010). Plant- and insect-derived semiochemicals can be used for pest control to cause behavioural disruption of the pests themselves and/or their natural enemies (Cook et al 2007b) These can provide sustainable control alternatives to the use of synthetic toxicant insecticides, they take a long time in development and still only make up a small fraction of the pest control market. There are eight life stages or behavioural processes in the life cycle of the pollen beetle that are already known to be (or could be) mediated by semiochemical interactions and offer the potential for control methods These are (i) emergence from overwintering, (ii) food host-plant location, (iii) food host-plant acceptance, (iv) ovipositional host-plant location, (v) ovipositional host-plant acceptance, (vi) mate location, (vii) predation by natural enemies and (viii) location of and movement to overwintering sites. The current knowledge of the behavioural ecology of the pollen beetle is reviewed here followed by a discussion of potential opportunities for semiochemical-based control methods which exploit or disrupt their natural behaviours
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