Some tritrophic level interactions between three host plant species, the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) and its two natural enemies

Bagheri, Mohammad Reza and Hassanpour, Mahdi and Golizadeh, Ali and Farrokhi, Shahram (2017) Some tritrophic level interactions between three host plant species, the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) and its two natural enemies. Doctoral thesis, university of Mohaghegh Ardabili.

Text (برخی برهم‏کنش‏های تغذیه‏ای سه¬ سطحی بین سه گونه گیاه میزبان، سفیدبالک گلخانه Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) و دو گونه از دشمنان طبیعی آن) Mohammad Reza Bagheri.pdf Download (546kB)

Abstract

The effects of three host plants including tomato, cucumber and eggplant were investigated on biological and population growth parameters of the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum and its two important natural enemies, Nesidiocoris tenuis and the parasitoid wasp, Encarsia formosa, as well as tritrophic interactions between them. The results showed that the host plants can affect life table parameters of the pest and it's natural enemies. The highest and lowest intrinsic rate of increase (r) of T. vaporariorum were achieved on the eggplant (0.144±0.005 d-1) and tomato (0.118±0.005 d-1), respectively. In contrast, the highest intrinsic rate of increase (r) of E. formosa (0.239±0.004 d-1) and N. tenuis (0.117±0.005 d-1) were recorded on tomato. The net predation rate of the predator on T. vaporariorum nymphs on the mentioned host plants, were estimated to be 1803.59±135.9, 1337.17±114.27 and 1163.27±105.81 nymphs/life span, respectively. The functional response of both natural enemies on all three host plants were from type II. In interactions between two natural enemies, we found that there is a unidirectional coincidental intraguild predation. In all three host plants, adult female predator fed white-parasitized and non-parasitized prey in a equal proportion, but significantly fewer black- parasitized nymphs were consumed. The results suggest that these two natural enemies may be more effective for biological control of T. vaporariorum in the greenhouse, especially on tomato. For simoltaneous using of these two natural enemies in control of T. vaporariorum, further greenhouse base studies are needed.

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