Temperature-dependent development of the two-spotted ladybeetle, Adalia bipunctata, on the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, and a factitious food under constant temperatures
1Department of Crop Protection, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
2Current address: Department of Crop Protection, Vali-e Asr University, P.O.Box:771393641, Rafsanjan, Iran
3Department of Plant Protection, Islamic Azad University, Takestan Branch. P.O. Box: 34819-49479 Takestan- Iran
Abstract
The ability of a natural enemy to tolerate a wide temperature range is a critical factor in the evaluation of its suitability as a biological control agent. In the current study, temperaturedependent development of the two-spotted ladybeetle A. bipunctata L. (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) was evaluated on Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and a factitious food consisting of moist bee pollen and Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) eggs under six constant temperatures ranging from 15 to 35° C. On both diets, the developmental rate of A. bipunctata showed a positive linear relationship with temperature in the range of 15-30° C, but the ladybird failed to develop to the adult stage at 35° C. Total immature mortality in the temperature range of 15-30° C ranged from 24.30-69.40% and 40.47-76.15% on the aphid prey and factitious food, respectively. One linear and two nonlinear models were fitted to the data. The linear model successfully predicted the lower developmental thresholds and thermal constants of the predator. The non-linear models of Lactin and Brière overestimated the upper developmental thresholds of A. bipunctata on both diets. Furthermore, in some cases, there were marked differences among models in estimates of the lower developmental threshold (tmin). Depending on the model, tmin values for total development ranged from 10.06 to 10.47° C and from 9.39 to 11.31° C on M. persicae and factitious food, respectively. Similar thermal constants of 267.9DD (on the aphid diet) and 266.3DD (on the factitious food) were calculated for the total development of A. bipunctata, indicating the nutritional value of the factitious food.
Keywords:Development, thermal budget, threshold temperature, modelling, biological control, Coccinellidae
Abbreviations: DD, degree day; K, thermal constant or the sum of effective temperatures (SET); K–S test,
Kolmogorov–Smirnov test; L1 to L4, 1st to 4th instar larvae; LDT, lower developmental threshold (tmin or t0); RSS,
residual sum of squares; SET, see K; t0, see LDT; tmin, see LDT; TL, upper development threshold; tmax, see TL; Topt,
optimum temperature
Correspondence:
aPatrick.DeClercq@UGent.be
Associate Editor: J. P. Michaud was editor of this paper.
Received: 22 April 2009 | Accepted: 18 September 2009 | Published: 3 August 2010
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 10, Number 124
Jalali MA, Tirry L, Arbab A, De Clercq P. 2010. Temperature-dependent development of the two-spotted ladybeetle, Adalia bipunctata, on the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, and a factitious food under constant temperatures. Journal of Insect Science 10:124, available online: insectscience.org/10.124
 Figure 1 |