Direct and indirect effects of selective insecticides on 2 generalist predators of Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae).

Generalist arthropod predators have historically contributed to the suppression of arthropod pests in many agroecosystems. The successful implementation of integrated pest management (IPM) programs hinges on the incorporation of insecticides that are compatible with the biological attributes of natural enemies of pests. A potentially promising pathway is improving biological control by natural enemies through the timely application of selective insecticides.

Assessing native parasitoids of the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii (Diptera: Drosophilidae) in the Southeastern USA.

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), commonly known as spotted-wing Drosophila (SWD), is an invasive insect pest threatening the economy of many small fruit farms in the Americas and Europe. Biological control using parasitoids is a promising strategy for improving the sustainable management of SWD. To use the parasitoids as biocontrol agents, recognizing and understanding the presence and preference of North American native parasitoids and their local adaptation is necessary.

Scab Intensity in Pecan Trees in Relation to Hedge-Pruning Methods.

Pecan is a valuable nut crop cultivated in the southeastern United States. Among the major yield-limiting factors in the region is scab, caused by the plant pathogenic fungus . Managing scab in tall trees (15 to 25+ m) in pecan orchards is challenging because of the limitations of getting sufficient spray coverage throughout the canopy.

A molecular approach to unravel trophic interactions between parasitoids and hyperparasitoids associated with pecan aphids.

Advances in molecular ecology can overcome many challenges in understanding host-parasitoid interactions. Genetic characterization of the key-players in systems helps to confirm species and identify trophic linkages essential for ecological service delivery by biological control agents; however, relatively few agroecosystems have been explored using this approach. Pecan production consists of a large tree perennial system containing an assortment of seasonal pests and natural enemies.

From weeds to natural enemies: implications of weed cultivation and biopesticides for organic onion production.

Weed management is challenging for vegetable crops that are highly sensitive to weed competition, such as onions. Thrips (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) are major insect pests of onions, causing damage through feeding, and vectoring bacterial pathogens causing bulb rot. Both thrips and their associated pathogens are known to survive on many weed species in onion growing regions.

Warmer temperatures trigger insecticide-associated pest outbreaks.

Background: Rising global temperatures are associated with emerging insect pests, reflecting earlier and longer insect activity, faster development, more generations per year and changing species' ranges. Insecticides are often the first tools available to manage these new threats. In the southeastern US, sweet potato whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) has recently become the major threat to vegetable production.

Low Incidence of Avian Predation on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), in Southeastern Orchard Systems.

In many agroecosystems, brown marmorated stink bugs () (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) are polyphagous pests that cause significant economic losses to numerous crops every year. Insectivorous birds may provide a means of sustainable predation of invasive pests, such as . In forest margins surrounding peach, pecan, and interplanted peach-pecan orchards, we monitored populations with pheromone-baited traps, mist-netted birds, and collected avian fecal samples for molecular gut content analysis.

A Review of Successes and Impeding Challenges of IoT-Based Insect Pest Detection Systems for Estimating Agroecosystem Health and Productivity of Cotton.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and the IoT (Internet of Things) is a primary focus of applied engineering research to improve agricultural efficiency. This review paper summarizes the engagement of artificial intelligence models and IoT techniques in detecting, classifying, and counting cotton insect pests and corresponding beneficial insects. The effectiveness and limitations of AI and IoT techniques in various cotton agricultural settings were comprehensively reviewed.

First Documented Wild Population of the "Hunter Fly", Stein (Diptera: Muscidae) in North America.

is a member of the -group of ( Hennig 1964) and is a capable generalist predator in its larval and adult stages. is common in greenhouses worldwide, however, there are few documented cases of its presence in the wild. Here, we estimated presence in the southeastern USA peach orchards using pan traps.

Toxicity of Photorhabdus luminescens and Xenorhabdus bovienii bacterial metabolites to pecan aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and the lady beetle Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae).

Toxicity of the metabolites of two bacteria, Photorhabdus luminescens and Xenorhabdus bovienii, symbionts of entomopathogenic nematodes, were tested in the laboratory against the multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis, the black pecan aphid, Melanocallis caryaefoliae, and the blackmargined aphid, Monellia caryella. Bacterial broth prepared from both P. luminescens and X.

Diet composition and diversity does not explain fewer, smaller urban nestlings.

The reproductive success of animals breeding in cities is often lower compared to counterparts that inhabit rural, suburban, and peri-urban areas. Urban dwelling may be especially costly for offspring development and survival. Diet composition and diversity may underlie factors that lead to lower fitness, particularly if prey abundance and quality decline in modified environments.

Rapid PCR-based method for herbivore dietary evaluation using plant-specific primers.

Polyphagous pests cause significant economic loss worldwide through feeding damage on various cash crops. However, their diets in agricultural landscapes remain largely unexplored. Pest dietary evaluation in agricultural fields is a challenging task currently approached through visual observation of plant feeding and microscopic identification of semi-digested plant material in pest's guts.

Parasitoid Communities in the Variable Agricultural Environments of Blueberry Production in the Southeastern United States.

In blueberry crops, there are multiple pest species, and some of those can be suppressed by natural enemies including parasitoid wasps and predators. Parasitoid wasps occur within the environment often tracking pest species for food resources to complete their lifecycle. These small wasps are also sensitive to agricultural environments including agrichemicals, habitat availability, and climate.

Identifying Molecular-Based Trophic Interactions as a Resource for Advanced Integrated Pest Management.

Biodiversity is an essential attribute of sustainable agroecosystems. Diverse arthropod communities deliver multiple ecosystem services, such as biological control, which are the core of integrated pest management programs. The molecular analysis of arthropod diets has emerged as a new tool to monitor and help predict the outcomes of management on the functioning of arthropod communities.

Responses to environmental variability by herbivorous insects and their natural enemies within a bioenergy crop, Miscanthus x giganteus.

Precision agriculture (PA) is the application of management decisions based on identifying, quantifying, and responding to space-time variability. However, knowledge of crop pest responses to within-field environmental variability, and the spatial distribution of their natural enemies, is limited. Quantitative methods providing insights on how pest-predator relationships vary within fields are potentially important tools.

Can Generalist Predators Control ?

The whitefly, , has developed resistance to many insecticides, renewing interest in the biological control of this global pest. Generalist predators might contribute to whitefly suppression if they commonly occur in infested fields and generally complement rather than interfere with specialized natural enemies. Here, we review literature from the last 20 years, across US cropping systems, which considers the impacts of generalist predators on .

Plant-animal interactions between carnivorous plants, sheet-web spiders, and ground-running spiders as guild predators in a wet meadow community.

Plant-animal interactions are diverse and widespread shaping ecology, evolution, and biodiversity of most ecological communities. Carnivorous plants are unusual in that they can be simultaneously engaged with animals in multiple mutualistic and antagonistic interactions including reversed plant-animal interactions where they are the predator. Competition with animals is a potential antagonistic plant-animal interaction unique to carnivorous plants when they and animal predators consume the same prey.

Discovery of Aphis ruborum (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Aphelinus varipes (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) on Cultivated Strawberry in Mississippi, USA.

An adventive aphid and novel host-parasitoid association from cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananessa Duch. cv. Chandler; Fragaria × ananessa Duch.

Percentage-based Author Contribution Index: a universal measure of author contribution to scientific articles.

Background: Deciphering the amount of work provided by different co-authors of a scientific paper has been a recurrent problem in science. Despite the myriad of metrics available, the scientific community still largely relies on the position in the list of authors to evaluate contributions, a metric that attributes subjective and unfounded credit to co-authors. We propose an easy to apply, universally comparable and fair metric to measure and report co-authors contribution in the scientific literature.

Natural Enemy Abundance in Southeastern Blueberry Agroecosystems: Distance to Edge and Impact of Management Practices.

Natural enemies are valuable components of agroecosystems as they provide biological control services to help regulate pest populations. Promoting biocontrol services can improve sustainability by decreasing pesticide usage, which is a major challenge for the blueberry industry. Our research is the first to compare natural enemy populations in managed (conventional and organic) and unmanaged blueberry systems, in addition to the effects of non-crop habitat.

Perennial Grass and Native Wildflowers: A Synergistic Approach to Habitat Management.

Marginal agricultural land provides opportunities to diversify landscapes by producing biomass for biofuel, and through floral provisioning that enhances arthropod-mediated ecosystem service delivery. We examined the effects of local spatial context (adjacent to woodland or agriculture) and irrigation (irrigation or no irrigation) on wildflower bloom and visitation by arthropods in a biofeedstocks-wildflower habitat buffer design. Twenty habitat buffer plots were established containing a subplot of Napier grass ( Schumach) for biofeedstock, three commercial wildflower mix subplots, and a control subplot containing spontaneous weeds.

Elucidating the Common Generalist Predators of Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in an Organic Apple Orchard Using Molecular Gut-Content Analysis.

Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), plum curculio, is a serious direct pest of North American tree fruit including, apples, cherries, peaches and plums. Historically, organophosphate insecticides were used for control, but this tool is no longer registered for use in tree fruit. In addition, few organically approved insecticides are available for organic pest control and none have proven efficacy as this time.

Predator-prey trophic relationships in response to organic management practices.

A broad range of environmental conditions likely regulate predator-prey population dynamics and impact the structure of these communities. Central to understanding the interplay between predator and prey populations and their importance is characterizing the corresponding trophic interactions. Here, we use a well-documented molecular approach to examine the structure of the community of natural enemies preying upon the squash bug, Anasa tristis, a herbivorous cucurbit pest that severely hinders organic squash and pumpkin production in the United States.