Efficacy of afidopyropen against soybean aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and toxicity to natural enemies.

Background: Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae), remains the most significant soybean insect pest in the North Central Region of the USA. The sustainability of reliance on only a few insecticide groups for this pest is questionable. We evaluate afidopyropen, a novel pyropene insecticide (Group 9D), for efficacy against A. glycines in field and greenhouse experiments and toxicity to common natural enemies in laboratory experiments.

Results: Across 4 site-years of field experiments and a greenhouse experiment, afidopyropen reduced A. glycines populations similar to commonly used broad-spectrum [i.e. lambda-cyhalothrin (Group 3A) and chlorpyrifos (Group 1B)] insecticides and potential selective insecticides [i.e. sulfoxaflor (Group 4C) and flupyradifurone (Group 4D)]. In the greenhouse, however, A. glycines mortality was delayed slightly for afidopyropen compared to the other insecticides. In laboratory experiments with natural enemies of A. glycines, afidopyropen was not toxic to adult or third instar Hippodamia convergens (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) or adult Orius insidiosus (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), and was only moderately toxic to Aphelinus certus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae).

Conclusion: Afidopyropen is effective against A. glycines and relatively non-toxic to natural enemies, and appears to be an effective option for integrated pest management and insecticide resistance management programs for A. glycines. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.