Dicyphine mirids are important biological control agents (BCAs) in horticultural crops. Wagner can be found in protected tomato crops in Portugal, and has been observed feeding on several tomato pests. However, the predation capacity of this species is poorly studied. In order to investigate the predation capacity of , and how it is affected by prey size and mobility, we evaluated the functional response (FR) and predation rate of female predators on different densities of four prey species: 1st instar nymphs (large mobile prey), 4th instar nymphs, eggs (large immobile prey) and eggs (small immobile prey). Experiments were performed on tomato leaflets in Petri dish arenas for 24 h. exhibited type II FR for all prey tested. The predator effectively preyed upon all prey, consuming an average of 88.8 nymphs, 134.4 eggs, 37.3 nymphs and 172.3 eggs. Differences in the FR parameters, attack rate and handling time, suggested that prey size and mobility affected predation capacity. Considering the very high predation rates found for all prey species, proved to be an interesting candidate BCA for tomato crops.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12060530 | DOI Listing |
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