Biological invasions have been accelerated by a variety of human activities. Propagule pressure, the number of introduced individuals and independent introductions, is probably to be influenced by these human activities and may be an important factor for successful range expansion in new environments. We tested whether the current distribution of the predatory ladybeetle Coccinella septempuncta...

We investigated differential susceptibility of lady beetles to entomopathogenic nematodes, for two reasons: (1) to estimate potential nontarget effects on natural lady beetle populations, (2) to compare the susceptibility of exotic versus native lady beetle species. We hypothesize that successful establishment of some exotically introduced arthropods may be due, in part, to a lower susceptibili...

Some experiments indicate the ability of coccinellids to significantly suppress aphid abundance. Exclusion of predators by caging aphid-infested plants has repeatedly resulted in higher aphid populations and greater aphid population growth rates. However, aphidophagous coccinellids have never proved effective in controlling aphid populations in the field. To resolve this apparent contradiction,...

bionomics of aphis gossypii glover and its predators coccinella septempunctata l. and hippodamia variegata goeze were studied in varamin (tehran province) during 11th may to 5th october 2006 on eggplant crop, with the interaction (density dependence) between the aphid and either of the predators determined. the reliable sample size (number of leaves) with a maximum variation of 6.73% was about ...