Abstract
This work puts forward a dynamical population model to qualitatively reproduce the phenomena of apparent competition and apparent mutualism found in an experiment with two arthropods being attacked by a predator in a context of pest biological control in greenhouse crops. The two agricultural pests consist of one species of thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande 1895)) and one species of whiteflies (Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood, 1956), and the shared predator is a predatory mite (Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Herriot, 1962). The predatory mite is the biocontrol agent employed in order to achieve the biological control. The proposed model successfully reproduces this density mediated indirect interactions between pests when their carrying capacities are increased. Moreover, the pests’ final population levels may depend on their initial densities and those of their predator. With these results, the proposed model may have the potential to assess whether these indirect pest interactions disrupt or enhance biological control. Additionally, it can also be used as an ancillary tool to theoretically assess the effects of pest biocontrol strategies in the referred experimental setup.
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14 June 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-021-00879-x
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions made by the reviewers on an earlier version of this work. Lucas dos Anjos was supported by a fellowship from the Institutional Training Program (PCI) from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC) (Grant Number: 301327/2020-3).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. MISC did the conceptualization, the creation of the studied model, and the preparation of the manuscript. LA performed the analyses, discussed the results, and reviewed the original text.
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Edited by Yulin Gao – CAAS, China
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Costa, M.I.S., Anjos, L. The Occurrence of Apparent Competition and Apparent Mutualism in a Modeled Greenhouse System with Two Non-competing Pests and a Shared Biocontrol Agent. Neotrop Entomol 49, 874–881 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-020-00820-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-020-00820-8