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Natural Enemies of Insect Pests in Neotropical Agroecosystems pp 15–26Cite as

Interactions of Natural Enemies with Non-cultivated Plants

Abstract

Interactions of non-crop plants with natural enemies are continuous in space and time in the tropics. The advantages of using non-crop plants for habitat manipulation are that they are naturally present in agroecosystems, they grow rapidly and spontaneously, and farmers know them well. The presence of non-crop plants in or around fields affects the abundance of different groups of predators in different ways by providing alternative prey, refuge, nectar, and pollen as complementary resources. For instance, some Coccinellidae species forage on flowers and extrafloral nectaries and use non-crop plants as refuge. Adults of Syrphidae are frequently recorded feeding on nectar and pollen, and Anthocoridae, Neuroptera, and Araneae are also observed exploiting these resources from non-crop plants. To increase and conserve these natural enemies, strips of non-crop plants between crop rows or around the main crop should be maintained. However, the success of this strategy for biological control depends on understanding how plants, herbivores, and natural enemies interact.

Keywords

  • Conservation
  • Biological control
  • Predators
  • Alternative food
  • Tropical agroecosystems
  • Spontaneous plants

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais (EPAMIG), Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Madelaine Venzon

  2. Prefeitura Municipal de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Dany Silvio Souza Leite Amaral

  3. Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Ecology Department, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil

    Pedro Henrique Brum Togni

  4. Doutoranda Entomologia/Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brasil

    Juliana Andrea Martinez Chiguachi

Authors
  1. Madelaine Venzon
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  2. Dany Silvio Souza Leite Amaral
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  3. Pedro Henrique Brum Togni
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  4. Juliana Andrea Martinez Chiguachi
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Correspondence to Madelaine Venzon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Prof. Dr. Brígida Souza

  2. Instituto de Investigaciones de Sanidad Vegetal (INISAV), Miramar, La Habana, Cuba

    Luis L. Vázquez

  3. Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), Department of Entomology, Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Rosangela C. Marucci

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Venzon, M., Amaral, D.S.S.L., Togni, P.H.B., Chiguachi, J.A.M. (2019). Interactions of Natural Enemies with Non-cultivated Plants. In: Souza, B., Vázquez, L., Marucci, R. (eds) Natural Enemies of Insect Pests in Neotropical Agroecosystems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24733-1_2

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