Reproduction of Orius laevigatus and Orius albidipennis on pollen and Ephestia kuehniella eggs

Abstract

Reproduction and longevity of the anthocorid predators Orius laevigatus (Fieber) and Orius albidipennis (Reuter) (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) were studied under controlled conditions in the laboratory. Three different diets were tested: eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella Zeller, E. kuehniella eggs plus pollen, and pollen only. Small rooted plants of Spanish pepper (Capsicum annuum L. cv. 'Creta', long red) served as oviposition substrate and moisture source. In all treatments, total fecundity, oviposition period and female longevity of O. laevigatus were greater than that of O. albidipennis. When a diet of E. kuehniella eggs was supplemented with pollen, total fecundity of O. albidipennis was increased by about 40%. Female O. albidipennis fed only pollen laid five times less eggs than those fed flour moth eggs and pollen; also, longevity of females was shorter when only pollen was offered as food. Fecundity and longevity of O. laevigatus were not influenced when supplementing a diet of E. kuehniella eggs with pollen. Females of O. laevigatus receiving only pollen reduced egg production by about 60% but had a similar longevity as those receiving a diet including flour moth eggs. In either species, preoviposition period and egg hatch were not affected by diet. The ability of both anthocorids to use pollen as an alternative or additional food is discussed in relation to their practical use in integrated control programmes.

Survival and developmental characteristics of the predatory bug Orius similis (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) fed on Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Acari: Tetranychidae) at three constant temperatures

“…The Orius spp. in this area are likely to be well adapted to high temperatures, based on the results of a study on O. albidipennis (Cocuzza et al, 1997). The high cumulative survival (64.43%) recorded at 31°C indicates that O. similis is able to thrive at relatively high temperatures, although its survival at this temperature was lower than at 28°C (75.57%).…”

“…Adult females of O. similis need 5-6 days to complete the development of their reproductive system after (22) (Cocuzza et al, 1997) and on the spider mite T. urticae (approximately 100 eggs per female at most) at 25°C (Chyzik et al, 1995). It is unknown whether subtropical species of Orius are more likely to prey on thrips or T. urticae than T. cinnabarinus.…”

“…Based on previous laboratory experience and the data from previous studies on other Orius spp. (Chyzik et al, 1995;Cocuzza et al, 1997), we assumed a sex ratio of 1:1 in all treatments. For each temperature, daily age-specific survival and age-specific fecundity were used to calculate the intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm), which is expressed as the number of females per female per day using the following formula of Birch (1948):…”

Comparison of the reproductive potential of three Orius species, O. strigicollis, O. sauteri, and O. minutus (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae), using eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth as a food source

“…They also suggested that some nutrition contents in the diet might affect the fecundity of the bug. Many Orius species can be successfully reared on E. kuehniella eggs (Alauzet et al, 1992(Alauzet et al, , 1994Tommasini and Nicoli, 1993;Richards and Schmidt, 1996;Cocuzza et al, 1997;Vacante et al, 1997;Honda et al, 1998;Yano et al, 2002). However, the existence of non-ovipositing females is an important problem from the viewpoint of quality control in the mass-production of Orius species as a biological control agent.…”

The Reproductive Tract of the Males of the Zoophytophagous Predator <i>Brontocoris tabidus</i> (Signoret) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) with Different Diets and Ages

“…Zoophytophagous predators feed on prey and/or on plants (Agrawal et al, 1999;Eubanks and Denno;Coll and Guershon, 2002;Azevedo et al, 2007;Guedes et al, 2007) with benefits for biological control of insect pests by improving the maintenance of the populations of these natural enemies during periods of prey shortage (Cocuzza et al, 1997). However, the morphological features of the reproductive organs and the fecundity of predatory Pentatomidae can be affected by factors such as unfavorable environmental conditions and quantity or quality of the food (Lemos et al, 2005a;2005b).…”