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Chinese Journal of Biological Control ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (6): 1443-1448.DOI: 10.16409/j.cnki.2095-039x.2022.03.021

• RESEARCH REPORTS • Previous Articles    

Functional Response and Predation Preference of Orius tantillus to Megalurothrips usitatus

QIU Haiyan1, FU Buli1, HE Shilan2, LIU Kui1   

  1. 1. The Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management of Tropical Crops/Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences/Engineering Research Center of Tropical Crops Pest Biological Control, Haikou 571101, China;
    2. Hainan Agriculture School, Haikou 571101, China
  • Received:2021-11-17 Published:2022-12-16

Abstract: Orius tantillus (Motschulsky) is one of the local nature enemies of thrips in Hainan province, but its predatory capacity on Megalurothrips usitatus has never been determined. In this work, the functional response, searching efficiency, predation preference and interference response of O. tantillus on M. usitatus were studied under laboratory conditions. The results showed that the predation of O. sauteri on M. usitatus followed the Holling II functional response. The predation amount of the 1st-5th instar nymphs and adults of O. tantillus on the 2nd instar nymphs of M. usitatus were all positively correlated with the prey density, while their searching efficiency were negatively correlated with the prey density. The predation ability of the nymphs increased with increasing instar stage, reaching the highest at the 5th instar nymphs with a a'/Th value of 42.9 thrips. The predation of the 5th instar nymphs was strongly affected by intraspecific interference, and the average daily predation amount decreased with the increase of the predator density. The interference model was E=0.412P-0.822, the apportionment competition model was I=1.042lgP+0.071. The predation preference results showed that both the 5th instar nymphs and adults of O. tantillus strongly preferred the 2nd instar prey nymphs. These results suggest that O. tantillus is of strong control potential against the 2nd instar nymphs of M. usitatus.

Key words: Orius tantillus, Megalurothrips usitatus, predation, searching efficiency, predation preference

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