Loading…

Half Friend, Half Enemy? Comparative Phytophagy between Two Dicyphini Species (Hemiptera: Miridae)

Despite their importance as biological control agents, zoophytophagous dicyphine mirids can produce economically important damage. We evaluated the phytophagy and potential impact on tomato plants of and . We developed a study in three parts: (i) a semi-field trial to characterize the type of plant...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Insects (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2022-02, Vol.13 (2), p.175
Main Authors: Souto, Paula, Abraços-Duarte, Gonçalo, da Silva, Elsa Borges, Figueiredo, Elisabete
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite their importance as biological control agents, zoophytophagous dicyphine mirids can produce economically important damage. We evaluated the phytophagy and potential impact on tomato plants of and . We developed a study in three parts: (i) a semi-field trial to characterize the type of plant damage produced by these species on caged tomato plants; (ii) a laboratory experiment to assess the effect of fruit ripeness, mirid age, and prey availability on feeding injuries on fruit; and (iii) a laboratory assay to compare the position of both species on either fruit or plants, over time. Both species produced plant damage, however, although both species produced scar punctures on leaves and necrotic patches on petioles, only produced necrotic rings. Both species caused flower abortion at a similar level. Overall, females produced more damage to tomato fruit than . There was an increased frequency of females found on the plants over time, which did not happen with . Our results suggested that, although caused less damage to fruit than , it still fed on them and could cause floral abortion, which requires field evaluation and caution in its use in biological control strategies.
ISSN:2075-4450
2075-4450
DOI:10.3390/insects13020175