greenhouse whitefly and two-spotted spider mite are two important pests on greenhouse crops. the polyphagous predatory mite amblyseius swirskii preys on both of these pests. in this research, predation of the predatory mite on different stages of both pests, prey stage preference of pests, prey preference and switching behavior of predator between preferred stage of greenhouse whitefly and two-...

Invasive pest species may strongly affect biotic interactions in agro-ecosystems. The ability of generalist predators to prey on new invasive pests may result in drastic changes in the population dynamics of local pest species owing to predator-mediated indirect interactions among prey. On a short time scale, the nature and strength of such indirect interactions depend largely on preferences be...

the pea aphid, acyrthosiphon pisum (harris) is one of the most important pests of pea throughout the world.host stage preference under choice and no-choice tests and age-specific functional response of praon volucre (haliday) parasitizing a. pisum were investigated. the experiments were carried out under laboratory conditions at 25 ± 1 °c, 60 ± 5% rh and a photoperiod of 14: 10 h (l: d). functi...

The functional response of the tiger beetle Megacephala carolina carolina L. (Coleoptera: Carabidae) was determined on adult twolined spittlebug, Prosapia bicincta (Say) (Hemiptera: Cercopidae), and fourth instars of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), in single-prey and two-prey systems. In the laboratory,M. carolina carolina demonstrateda type II functi...

Macrolophus pygmaeus Rambur (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a generalist predatory mirid widely used in augmentative biological control of various insect pests in greenhouse tomato production in Europe, including the invasive tomato leafminer, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera, Gelechiidae). However, its biocontrol efficacy often relies on the presence of alternative prey. The present study aimed at...

The identification and conservation of naturally occurring enemies of crop pests is an important means of improving biological control in cropping systems. One particularly important potential mechanism whereby birds might stabilize and improve pest control is consumption of individual prey that escape mortality from other agents of biological control. We tested the hypothesis that birds prefer...

This study considers a delayed biological system of predator-prey interactions where the predator has stage-structured preference. It is assumed that the prey population has two stages: immature and mature. The predator population has different preference for the stage-structured prey. This type of behavior has been reported in Asecodes hispinarum and Microplitis mediator. By some lemmas and me...

melon ladybeetle, epilachna chrysomelina (f.) is one of the most injurious cucurbit attacking pests. sampling program and host preference of this ladybeetle were studied in ahvaz, southwest iran. suitable sample size, suitable location for sampling as well as suitable sampling life stage of the insect were obtained to be 12 on, lower leaf surface and egg stage of the ladybeetle, respectively. e...