Bulletin of Insectology (2004) 57, 79-93

Maria Grazia Tommasini, Joop C. van Lenteren and Giovanni Burgio (2004)
Biological traits and predation capacity of four Orius species on two prey species
Bulletin of Insectology 57 (2), 79-93
Abstract: Laboratory trials were carried out in order to determine biological traits and predation activity of four Orius species - the paleartic Orius majusculus (Reuter), O. laevigatus (Fieber) and O. niger Wolff and the neartic O. insidiosus (Say) - using Ephestia kuehniella (Zeller) eggs and Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) adults as prey. The intrinsic rates of natural increase (r_m) were calculated for the four Orius species on the two preys and the r_m was 0.094 (on F. occidentalis) and 0.068 (on E. kuehniella) for O. laevigatus, 0.097 (on F. occidentalis) and 0.080 (on E. kuehniella) for O. majusculus, 0.116 (on F. occidentalis) and 0.101 (on E. kuehniella) for O. insidiosus, 0.035 (on F. occidentalis) and -0.003 (on E. kuehniella) for O. niger, respectively. The kill-rate (k_m), a parameter that we designed to take into account the age-specific predation both during the nymphal and the adult stages, was calculated in order to compare the predation capacity of the Orius species. The k_m on the prey species F. occidentalis was 0.23 for O. laevigatus, 0.21 for O. majusculus, 0.25 for O. insidiosus, 0.19 for O. niger, respectively. In all species, the females that fed on E. kuehniella showed greater longevity and higher reproduction than those fed on F. occidentalis. O. niger was the most difficult species to rear, both during immature stages and as adults. O. niger showed a high preimaginal mortality, high consumption of E. kuehniella eggs, low predation of F. occidentalis adults, long development time, low fecundity and low r_m on both preys. The development time of O. majusculus and O. laevigatus was similar when feeding on F. occidentalis. The total consumption of E. kuehniella eggs was significantly higher for O. laevigatus. O. majusculus showed a higher fecundity compared to O. laevigatus when fed E. kuehniella eggs, but no differences were recorded when both species were fed F. occidentalis adults. Most data for the neartic O. insidiosus were similar to those of O. laevigatus and O. majusculus. Performance of O. laevigatus was best at 26 °C. A mass-rearing method for O. laevigatus was developed and the main quality control parameters for this species were defined.
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Database assignments for author(s): Maria Grazia Tommasini, Joop C. van Lenteren, Giovanni Burgio

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
general biology - morphology - evolution
rearing/culturing/mass production

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Orius laevigatus (predator)
Orius insidiosus (predator)
Orius majusculus (predator)
Orius niger (predator)