Use of Flowering Plants to Enhance Parasitism and Predation Rates on Two Squash Bug Species Anasa tristis and Anasa armigera (Hemiptera: Coreidae).

Cornelius Cornelius,Vinyard Vinyard,Gates Gates

doi:10.3390/insects10100318

Abstract

A two-year study evaluated the effect of a flowering border of buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum Moench on rates of egg parasitism, egg predation and adult parasitism on two squash bug species, Anasa tristis (DeGeer) and Anasa armigera Say, by comparing rates in squash fields with and without a flowering border. Furthermore, we evaluated whether there was an edge effect by comparing parasitism and predation rates in plots located in the corner of a squash field with plots located in the center of a squash field for fields with and without a flowering border. The egg parasitism rates were not affected by either treatment (flowering border or control) or plot location (edge or center). Anasa armigera egg masses only accounted for 4.3% of the total egg masses collected. The egg parasitism rates increased gradually throughout the season, peaking in the last week of August in 2017 at 45% for A. tristis egg masses. The most common egg parasitoid recovered was Gryon pennsylvanicum (Ashmead) followed by Ooencyrtus anasae (Ashmead). Adult parasitism was not affected by treatment, but A. tristis adult parasitism rates were higher in plots located on the edge of squash fields compared with plots located in the center of squash fields in 2016. Since adult parasitoid, Trichopoda pennipes (Fabricius) flies were observed visiting buckwheat flowers, future studies could explore the possibility that the flowering buckwheat may have a more impact on adult parasitism if there was a greater distance between fields with and without a flowering border.

Highlights

The loss of habitat and conversion of land to urbanization and intensive agriculture are major factors causing the loss of insect biodiversity [1]
We evaluated whether the use of flowering buckwheat as a border around squash fields increased the rates of parasitism and predation on egg masses and adults of squash bugs, Anasa tristis (DeGeer) and Anasa armigera Say (Hemiptera: Coreidae)
We evaluated whether the rates of egg parasitism, egg predation and adult parasitism varied between plots located at the edge of the field and plots located in the center of the field to determine if natural enemies attracted to flowering buckwheat were more abundant near the borders than in the center of the squash field

Summary

Introduction

The loss of habitat and conversion of land to urbanization and intensive agriculture are major factors causing the loss of insect biodiversity [1]. Urban farms and gardens can increase biodiversity, ecosystem services, and climate resilience [2]. There is an increasing interest in the use of land for urban and peri-urban agriculture as a means of maintaining biodiversity and providing products to local communities [2]. The use of floral resources in urban farms can increase ecosystem services such as pollination and biological control [3,4]. Floral resources have the potential to benefit farmers in both urban and rural areas, urban farmers are often growing organic produce for sale to local communities through farmers’ markets [2]. Urban farmers have a vested interest in finding methods of biological control to manage pest populations without a reliance on pesticides

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