Chemical Cues From Honeydew and Cuticular Extracts of Trialeurodes Vaporariorum Serve as Kairomones for The Parasitoid Encarsia Formosa.

Kairomones are semiochemicals that are emitted by an organism and which mediate interspecific interaction that is of benefit to an organism of another species that receives these chemical substances. Parasitoids find and recognize their hosts through eavesdropping on the kairomones emitted from the by-products or the body of the host. Hemipteran insect pests feed on plant sap and excrete the digested plant materials as honeydew.

Terpenes from herbivore-induced tomato plant volatiles attract Nesidiocoris tenuis (Hemiptera: Miridae), a predator of major tomato pests.

Background: Biological control plays a key role in reducing crop damage by Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) and Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood), which cause huge yield losses in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). The mirid predator Nesidiocoris tenuis (Reuter) preys heavily on these pests, with satisfying control levels in tomato greenhouses.

The Role of Trialeurodes vaporariorum-Infested Tomato Plant Volatiles in the Attraction of Encarsia formosa (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).

Natural enemies locate their herbivorous host and prey through kairomones emitted by host plants and herbivores. These kairomones could be exploited to attract and retain natural enemies in crop fields for insect pest control. The parasitoid Encarsia formosa preferentially parasitises its whitefly host, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, a major pest of tomato Solanum lycopersicum, thus offering an effective way to improve whitefly control.

Associated cultivated plants in tomato cropping systems structure arthropod communities and increase the regulation.

Cultivating plant mixtures is expected to provide a higher productivity and a better control of pests and diseases. The structure of the arthropod community is a major driver of the magnitude of natural pest regulations.With the aim of optimizing pest management, a study was carried out to determine the effect of the cropping system type (tomato mono-cropping vs.

Survival of a specialist natural enemy experiencing resource competition with an omnivorous predator when sharing the invasive prey .

Can specialist natural enemies persist in ecosystems when competing with omnivorous natural enemies for their shared prey? The consequences of omnivory have been studied theoretically, but empirical studies are still lacking. Omnivory is nevertheless common in nature and omnivorous predators coexist with specialists in many ecosystems, even when they are intraguild predators. This type of association is also common in agroecosystems in which biological control strategies are used.