Abstract
Biological pest control in greenhouses generally depends on the release of natural enemies. Macrolophus pygmaeus (Hemiptera: Miridae) is one of the most used predators in European vegetable crops. However, its long establishment time is considered as one of the main drawbacks in regard to pest control. Pre-plant release in nurseries and the use of banker plants are strategies frequently used to enhance the response of predatory mirids. The aim of this work was to determine how the length of the pre-plant release period in banker plants (PRP) and banker plant species influenced the establishment and population dynamics of M. pygmaeus and its pest control in tomato crops. Two PRPs (24 h and 30 days) and two banker plants (tomato, Solanum lycopersicum—Solanaceae, and Ballota hirsuta—Lamiaceae) were assayed in a complete factorial design with three replicates, in individual greenhouses. The proportion of individuals established, founder population, abundance and population growth rate of M. pygmaeus were significantly higher for the long than for the short PRP. For the long PRP, the founder population and abundance of M. pygmaeus in greenhouses were higher when B. hirsuta, rather than tomato, was used as banker plant. Lower incidences of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) and Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) were registered in greenhouses with the long PRP, while the effect of the banker plant was not significant. The higher proportions of individuals established and higher population growth rates of M. pygmaeus in the greenhouses with the largest founder populations suggest the implication of Allee effects.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the workers at the IMIDA Torreblanca experimental station for technical assistance, María José Ramirez-Soria to help with sampling, and Javier Calvo from Koppert Spain for providing B. tabaci.
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This work has been funded by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER 14-20-03).
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Supplementary material Table 1
Parameters of the logistic function (1) and statistics of the non-linear regression for the modeling of the population dynamics of M. pygmaeus in each greenhouse: No, the initial population—estimated number of M. pygmaeus in the greenhouse at t = 0—; r, population growth rate; df, degrees of freedom; R2, coefficient of determination; PRP, pre-plant release period in days; Rep, number of the replicate (DOCX 56 kb)
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Sanchez, J.A., López-Gallego, E., Pérez-Marcos, M. et al. The effect of banker plants and pre-plant release on the establishment and pest control of Macrolophus pygmaeus in tomato greenhouses. J Pest Sci 94, 297–307 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01257-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-020-01257-z