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Orius laevigatus strengthens its role as a biological control agent by inducing plant defenses

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A Correction to this article was published on 11 March 2021

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Abstract

Orius laevigatus is a generalist predator that is widely used in augmentative strategies against the key pest of sweet pepper, Frankliniella occidentalis. Despite being a zoophytophagous predator, the phytophagous behavior of O. laevigatus has not been previously explored in depth nor has the impact of phytophagy on plant physiology. Here, the hierarchical significance of O. laevigatus feeding on sweet pepper is compared with other behaviors. O. laevigatus spends the majority of its time (38%) feeding on apical meristems and apical fresh leaves, which were also preferred residence locations. Here, the phytophagous feeding behavior of O. laevigatus on sweet pepper is shown to trigger defensive responses in the plant. These O. laevigatus plant-induced defenses are then shown to contribute to the repellence or attraction of pests or natural enemies, respectively. Specifically, O. laevigatus-punctured sweet pepper plants induce repellency for the whitefly Bemisia tabaci and the thrips species F. occidentalis. In contrast, the whitefly parasitoid Encarsia formosa was significantly attracted to O. laevigatus-punctured plants. The plant responses to O. laevigatus punctures include the release of an altered blend of volatiles and activation of the jasmonic acid and salicylic acid signalling pathways. These results highlight an interesting facet to the biology of O. laevigatus, in which the ability of the predator to induce defensive responses in sweet pepper plants may serve to improve the biological control of both thrips and whiteflies.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results was partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2014-55616-C3) and the Conselleria d’Agricultura, Pesca i Alimentació de la Generalitat Valenciana. The authors thank Dr. Javier Calvo (KOPPERT BS, Spain) for supplying the insects, Dr. Pablo Bielza (Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Spain) for thrips colonies, Dimitrios Afentoulis, Zoi Thanou and Konstantinos Birmpilis (Erasmus + from Agricultural University of Athens) for providing support in the behavior experiments and Alice Mockford (University of Worcester) and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive review of this manuscript. MP-H was the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the MEC (Juan de la Cierva program- FPDI-2013-17968) and SB was the recipient of a grant from Russell IPM Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Protección Vegetal y Biotecnología, Unidad de Entomología UJI-IVIA, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (IVIA), Carretera de Moncada-Náquera Km. 4,5, 46113, Moncada, Valencia, Spain

    Sarra Bouagga, Alberto Urbaneja & Meritxell Pérez-Hedo

  2. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain

    José L. Rambla & Antonio Granell

  3. Unitat Associada d’Entomologia UJI-IVIA; Departament de Ciències Agràries i del Medi Natural, Universitat Jaume I UJI, Campus del Riu Sec, 12071, Castelló De La Plana, Spain

    Meritxell Pérez-Hedo

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  1. Sarra Bouagga
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  2. Alberto Urbaneja
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  5. Meritxell Pérez-Hedo
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Correspondence to Meritxell Pérez-Hedo.

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Communicated by D. C. Weber.

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Bouagga, S., Urbaneja, A., Rambla, J.L. et al. Orius laevigatus strengthens its role as a biological control agent by inducing plant defenses. J Pest Sci 91, 55–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-017-0886-4

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