Abstract
The development of Adalia bipunctata larvae feeding on the grain aphid Sitobion avenae was investigated at 15, 20 and 25°C and two different levels of food supply. Increased temperatures accelerated development and reduced mortality rates. A reduced food supply slowed down development and increased mortality at all life stages. The total food intake of larvae ranged from 24-65 mg, which is equivalent to up to 190 aphids. Larvae compensated for low food supply by reducing development rates, high prey exploitation efficiencies, reaching up to 100%, and by high prey-biomass conversion efficiencies, reaching over 40%. The find- ings are discussed under the aspect of suitability of A. bipunctata as a biological control agent for greenhouse-specific aphid pest species.
Highlights
Ladybirds have been used as biological control agents since the early 20th century (Hodek, 1970)
The observations show that S. avenae could be a good food source for breeding A. bipunctata
The larval development of A. bipunctata took 17 days when fed with M. persicae at 20°C (Hämäläinen et al, 1975), which is four days longer than in the present study
Summary
Ladybirds have been used as biological control agents since the early 20th century (Hodek, 1970). The coccidophagous species such as Rodolia cardinalis (Mulsant) have been used very successfully. Kalushkov (1994, 1998) systematically investigated the effect of different aphid species on the development of A. bipunctata larvae. He suggested a link between the palatability of the aphid species and the secondary plant metabolites they accumulated by feeding on their host plants. (a) It was shown that A. bipunctata develops well when fed exclusively on S. avenae (i.e. before target pest species occur or once they have been successfully reduced to low levels). Other research suggests that combination with other aphidophagous predators such as lacewings and gall midges should be carefully considered to gain optimum results (Hindayana et al, 2001)
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