Field evaluation of indigenous predacious insect, Chrysoperla carnea (Steph.) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), fitness in controlling aphids and whiteflies in two vegetable crops

The green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (Steph.) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), is a generalist predator in its larval stage of most species of soft bodied insect pests, especially aphids, whiteflies, thrips, coccids, and mealy bugs. This predator had been recorded in different regions in Saudi Arabia as indigenous species. The fitness of this indigenous predator for controlling the aphid, Aphis gossypii Glov., and the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Genn.), with five and ten releasing rates on sweet pepper and squash plants in the open field was evaluated. The experiments were carried out in Taif region, Saudi Arabia, during the summer of 2017. On squash plants, the reduction was more than 90% after the third predator release of ten larvae per plant for both pests and reached 100% only for the whitefly after six releases. On sweet pepper plants, reduction rates of the aphid and whitefly reached about 90 and 97%, after the second predator release of five and ten larvae per plant, respectively. A 100% reduction was achieved after four releases with five larvae/plant and three releases with ten larvae/plant. The present findings indicate that the releasing rates of five larvae/pepper plant and 10 larvae/squash plant were sufficient for suppressing both B. tabaci and A. gossypii populations.