Demographic Evaluation of the Control Potential of (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) Preying on (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) at Different Temperatures.

Tea thrips ( Priesner) are the main pests that seriously affect the yield and quality of tea, resulting in huge economic losses. The is one of the most important natural enemies or BCA of thrips. However, we are not concerned with its predation ability on tea thrips, nor thermal influence on this pattern and their interaction. Therefore, this study recorded life table data of and tea thrips combined with predation rate data to assess the ability of to control tea thrips using age-stage, two-sex life tables at five constant temperatures. The results showed that at 25 °C, had the highest predation rate on tea thrips, with an average generation time () of 22 d, intrinsic rate of increase () of 0.12 d-1, fecundity of 64.17, net reproduction rate () of 12.76 offspring, and net predation rate () of 310.92. In addition, around 410,000 adults and 1.98 million eggs were produced within 120 days. While the temperature change was straightforward, temperature effects on insects are not linear. The population size of the and tea thrip trended similarly at 15-30 °C and would eliminate dramatically at 35 °C. Meanwhile, the results indicated that could effectively inhibit the population growth of tea thrips at 15-30 °C, within 5-19 days at an intervention ratio of 10 adult and 200 thrips individuals. The simulations under different mediated temperatures demonstrated that is effective against tea thrips over a wide temperature range expected to be potential for biocontrol of tea thrips in tea gardens.