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Predation of cotton bollworm by green lacewings in the presence of cotton aphid as alternative prey on transgenic Bt and conventional cotton
Author(s) -
Bahar Md Habibullah,
Stanley John,
Gregg Peter,
Socorro Alice Del
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
entomologia experimentalis et applicata
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.765
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1570-7458
pISSN - 0013-8703
DOI - 10.1111/eea.12017
Subject(s) - biology , predation , helicoverpa armigera , larva , aphid , bt cotton , aphis gossypii , predator , biological pest control , botany , horticulture , toxicology , pest analysis , agronomy , ecology , aphididae , homoptera
Experiments were conducted in small arenas and on whole plants to explore the effect of cotton aphids, A phis gossypii G lover ( H emiptera: A phididae), as alternative prey on the predation of H elicoverpa armigera H übner ( L epidoptera: N octuidae) larvae by green lacewing larvae, M allada signatus S chneider ( N europtera: C hrysopidae). Transgenic Bt ( B ollgard II ® ) and conventional cotton plants were included to explore potential differences in the predator's performance on these cotton types. In small arenas, the presence of 20 aphids reduced predation on H . armigera larvae by 22% (from 5.5 to 3.3 of 10) by a single lacewing larva over a 24‐h period. The presence of H . armigera reduced predation on aphids by ca. 29% (from 16.8 to 11.0 of 20) over 24 h. On whole plants, the presence of alternative prey had no effect on the number of H . armigera larvae or aphids remaining after 3 days. The presence of H . armigera larvae alone, without the predator, caused a 24% reduction in the numbers of aphids on conventional, but not on Bt cotton plants. The combination of Bt cotton and lacewing larvae caused a 96.6% removal of early‐stage H . armigera larvae, a statistically significant increase over the addition of the proportions (91.6%) removed by each factor measured separately, providing evidence of synergism. These studies suggest that the presence of aphids as alternative prey would not necessarily disrupt the predation by green lacewing on larvae of H . armigera , especially on Bt cotton.