Alternative strategies to the common practice of spraying with insecticide in order to control the rosy apple aphid Dysaphis plantaginea (Pass.) (Homoptera: Aphididae) are required. Biological control by natural enemies is a possible tool. In Asturies, despite the tradition of growing local cider apple trees, there are no studies about the community of D. plantaginea predators and their impact ...

life table gives the most comprehensive explanation of the survivorship, development, and reproduction of a population. the life table parameters of an aphidophagous midge, aphidoletes aphidimyza were studied on different densities (5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80) of third instar nymphs of aphis gossypii as prey in a growth chamber (25 ± 1 °c, 70 ± 5% rh and a photoperiod of 16l: 8d h). the pre-oviposit...

Seed coating (‘seed treatment’) is the leading delivery method of neonicotinoid insecticides in major crops such as soybean, wheat, cotton and maize. However, this prophylactic use neonicotinoids widely discussed from standpoint environmental costs. Growing soybean plants neonicotinoid-coated seeds field, we demonstrate that aphids (Aphis glycines) survived treatment, excreted honeydew containi...

The suitability of two prey species, Aphis pomi De Geer (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Brevicoryne brassicae (L.), for two generalist aphidophagous coccinellids, Adalia tetraspilota (Hope) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Hippodamia variegata (Goeze), at various abundance levels was investigated under laboratory conditions. While both A. pomi and B. brassicae were found to be suitable, the predators...

Host plant defenses are known to cascade up food chains to influence herbivores and their natural enemies, but how herbivore and predator traits and identity mediate such tri-trophic dynamics is largely unknown. We assessed the influence of plant defense on aphid and coccinellid performance in laboratory trials with low- vs. high-glucosinolate varieties of Brassica napus, a dietary specialist (...