Life history of the harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis: a global meta-analysis

Abstract

The harlequin ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, is an important natural enemy of aphids throughout the world, but is now also considered an invasive alien species. We performed a meta-analysis of published life history data to address the question whether invading populations in Europe and North America have life history parameters that differ from native populations in Asia, explaining the beetle's invasion success in new territories. In this metaanalysis, we accounted for important covariables that are often reported in published studies such as temperature, food source (aphids or eggs of Ephestia kuehniella), strain (laboratory or field populations) and photoperiod. Temperature was a key factor having consistent large effects on development rate, survival and reproductive characteristics of H. axyridis. Food source, strain, and photoperiod had effects on some, but not all characteristics, and their overall effect across characteristics was minor. Individuals of invasive populations had a shorter pre-oviposition period and higher fecundity at low temperatures than those of native populations, and a greater longevity across all temperatures. No differences in survival were found between native and invasive populations, while differences in development rate were not consistent, with opposing results obtained according to the way development rate was measured in trials reported in the literature. Results of this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that the life history of the beetle has changed during its invasion into North America and Europe. Invasive populations had a shorter preoviposition period and higher fecundity at low temperatures, as well as a greater longevity across all temperatures than native populations. These differences may partially explain the invasive success of H. axyridis.Handling Editor: Peter Brown.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article

Aphid feeding by lady beetles: higher consumption at higher temperature

“…There is a long history of using lady beetles as biological control agents against aphids (Hodek et al 2012). Being ectothermic, both Coccinellidae and aphids, and their interactions, are highly affected by temperature (Sentis et al 2012;Zhang et al 2015;Raak-van den Berg et al 2017).…”

Life histories of an invasive and native ladybird under field experimental conditions in a temperate climate

“…The development times of H. axyridis found in our study fall within the range of available data on development times determined under laboratory conditions of unlimited food and long‐day conditions. With a model based on those laboratory studies (Raak‐van den Berg et al., ), estimates of development time at the average cage temperatures (Table ) are made for each period (I: 26.4; II: 21.3; III: 22.8; IV: 22.6; V: 17.4 days). The development times observed in this study fall within this range of estimated development times.…”

“…Many characteristics of H. axyridis are thought to contribute to its invasion success. The species is polyphagous, eurytopic, multivoltine (Hodek et al., ), has a good dispersal ability (Brown et al., ), a short generation time, high immature survival and high fecundity (Raak‐van den Berg et al., ). All these characteristics contribute to rapid population growth.…”

Asymmetric intraguild predation of Harmonia axyridis (Pallas, 1773) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on a native Coccinellidae guild

“…Invasive species enter a novel environment and have to established and spread while interacting with native species in the communities (Simberloff, 2015;DiTomaso et al, 2017). This new scenario implies new trophic interactions and a rearrangement of community structure, that may be facilitated by the life history strategy of the invader (Raak-van den Berg et al, 2017). However, these interactions can be negative, for example, the introduction of non-native species, aiming biological control is considered a major threat to native biodiversity (Van Lenteren et al, 2003;Brown et al, 2015) because destabilizes native prey and predator populations dynamics, especially in agronomic systems (Van Lenteren et al, 2003;Crowder and Snyder, 2010;Brown et al, 2015;Björklund et al, 2016).…”

“…Harmonia axyridis (Pallas, 1773) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is a predatory invasive species which cause serious impacts on native biodiversity in areas where it was introduced as a biological control agent of aphids. In particular, aphidophagous Coccinellidae suffer heavy negative effects of H. axyridis through competition for prey and predation (Pell et al, 2008;Brown et al, 2014;Roy and Brown, 2015;Roy et al, 2016;Raak-van den Berg et al, 2017). This species may displace native species in agricultural habitats in North America (Colunga-Garcia and Gage, 1998;Michaud, 2002;Evans et al, 2011) and in various regions of Europe (Brown et al, 2011;Roy et al, 2012;Roy and Brown, 2015).…”