Ecological Entomology (2003) 28, 348-358

Marc Rhainds and Greg English-Loeb (2003)
Testing the resource concentration hypothesis with tarnished plant bug on strawberry: density of hosts and patch size influence the interaction between abundance of nymphs and incidence of damage
Ecological Entomology 28 (3), 348-358
Abstract: 1. Attributes of patches with strawberry plants were manipulated experimentally to assess the impact of patch size and host density on the abundance of tarnished plant bug (Hemiptera: Miridae) and incidence of fruit damage.
2. The density of nymphs per inflorescence increased with patch size and host density for some but not all generations of plant bug, providing partial support for the resource concentration hypothesis, while emphasising the importance of replicating experiments across several generations of herbivore.
3. Increasing density of nymphs with increasing patch size and host density did not translate into a high incidence of damage, which may be due to the relatively low feeding impact of nymphs in patches with numerous fruits and to the relatively high perimeter-to-area ratio in small patches resulting in a relatively high proportion of damaged fruits.
4. The decreasing proportion of damaged fruits with increasing density of fruits per patch suggests that nymphs exhibit a saturating functional response to density of strawberry fruits. Functional responses of herbivores may be a critical yet overlooked component that influences interactions between insects and their host plant. In particular, concentrated plant resources may result in increased numbers of herbivores yet sill have a negligible influence on plant damage and/or fitness.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Marc Rhainds

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
population dynamics/ epidemiology
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Lygus lineolaris	Strawberry (Fragaria)