Abstract. Apple is grown as a long-term perennial crop and orchards provide relatively stable ecological habitats. Only a small proportion of the diverse fauna of arthropods that can inhabit the orchard ecosystem are important pests, the majority of species being minor pests, beneficial or benign. In this paper, the interacting ecosystem services provided by five contrasting naturally occurring arthropod groups in cool temperate apple orchards are reviewed, and their economic benefits broadly quantified. These are:• The roles of bees and other insects in apple pollination increasing yields and fruit quality, the economic value of which may be significantly underestimated.• Naturally occurring, pesticide-resistant phytoseiid predatory mites and their role in regulating phytophagous mites. They eliminate the need for 1-2 acaricide sprays per annum and the risk of acaricide resistance.• The earwig Forficula auricularia L. and its role in regulating several important apple pests. There is great variability in populations between orchards for reasons not fully understood. It is estimated that F. auricularia reduces insecticide applications by 2-3 per annum and reduces pest damage.• Mutualism between the common black ant Lasius niger (L.) and important pest aphids, the roles of competitors, natural and artificial food sources, and ant exclusion in disrupting mutualism which can foster biocontrol of aphids by generalist predators so greatly reducing the need for sprays.• Beneficial epigeic arthropods and their role in predating the soil dwelling life stages of insect pests. These contribute to the control of pest populations although the level of suppression is not consistent depending on several ecological factors.

Spiders (Araneae) form abundant and diverse assemblages in agroecosystems such as fruit orchards, and thus might have an important role as natural enemies of orchard pests. Although spiders are polyphagous and opportunistic predators in general, limited information exists on their natural prey at both species and community levels. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the natural prey (realized trophic niche) of arboreal hunting spiders, their role in trophic webs and their biological control potential with direct observation of predation events in apple orchards. Hunting spiders with prey in their chelicerae were collected in the canopy of apple trees in organic apple orchards in Hungary during the growing seasons between 2013 and 2019 and both spiders and their prey were identified and measured. Among others, the composition of the actual (captured by spiders) and the potential (available in the canopy) prey was compared, trophic niche and food web metrics were calculated, and some morphological, dimensional data of the spider-prey pairs were analyzed. Species-specific differences in prey composition or pest control ability were also discussed. By analyzing a total of 878 prey items captured by spiders, we concluded that arboreal hunting spiders forage selectively and consume a large number of apple pests; however, spiders’ beneficial effects are greatly reduced by their high levels of intraguild predation and by a propensity to switch from pests to alternative prey. In this study, arboreal hunting spiders showed negative selectivity for pests, no selectivity for natural enemies and positive selectivity for neutral species. In the trophic web, the dominant hunting spider taxa/groups (Carrhotus xanthogramma, Philodromus cespitum, Clubiona spp., Ebrechtella tricuspidata, Xysticus spp. and ‘Other salticids’) exhibit different levels of predation on different prey groups and the trophic web’s structure changes depending on the time of year. Hunting spiders show a high functional redundancy in their predation, but contrary to their polyphagous nature, the examined spider taxa showed differences in their natural diet, exhibited a certain degree of prey specialization and selected prey by size and taxonomic identity. Guilds (such as stalkers, ambushers and foliage runners) did not consistently predict either prey composition or predation selectivity of arboreal hunting spider species. From the economic standpoint, Ph. cespitum and Clubiona spp. were found to be the most effective natural enemies of apple pests, especially of aphids. Finally, the trophic niche width of C. xanthogramma and Ph. cespitum increased during ontogeny, resulting in a shift in their predation. These results demonstrate how specific generalist predators can differ from each other in aspects of their predation ecology even within a relatively narrow taxonomic group.

No abstract

The expansion process of the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus in Europe and Asia is described in terms of: a) local expansion through colony growing measured on four supercolonies (Seva, Debrecen, Buda Castle and BudatØtØny) from two distant and climatically different countries (Spain, Hungary), and b) regional expansion, using data from all published and several new non-native localities. Short, local distance processes (few meters to 89 m year-1 ), as colony budding, are two to five orders of magnitude smaller than long regional distances (ten km to >1000 km). This suggests direct human intervention in the invasive spread. The regional trend also shows that the invasive garden ant has been quickly and steadily increasing the number of non native localities (77) and countries (14) it has reached during the last 30 years.

No abstract

Growers of organic tree fruit face challenges in controlling some pests more easily suppressed by broad-spectrum insecticides in conventionally managed orchards. In recent decades, there has been a move towards organically growing varieties normally reliant on synthetic chemical pesticides (e.g., Gala), often to meet retailer/consumer demands. This inevitably makes crop protection in organic orchards more challenging, as modern varieties can be less tolerant to pests. In addition, there have been substantial reductions in plant protection product (PPP) approvals, resulting in fewer chemical options available for integrated pest management (IPM)-maintained orchards. Conversely, the organic management of fruit tree pests involves many practices that could be successfully implemented in conventionally grown crops, but which are currently not. These practices could also be more widely used in IPM-maintained orchards, alleviating the reliance on broad-spectrum PPP. In this review, we evaluate organic practices, with a focus on those that could be incorporated into conventional apple and pear production. The topics cover cultural control, biological control, physical and pest modifications. While the pests discussed mainly affect European species, many of the methods could be used to target other global pests for more environmentally sustainable practices

No abstract

Acanalonia conica (Say, 1830), the first representative of the Nearctic planthopper family Acanaloniidae (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha: Fulgoroidea), introduced to Europe, is reported for the first time from multiple locations in Hungary. Diagnosis, detailed illustration of male genitalia and notes on ecology are provided along with the distributional records.