The pest kill rate of thirteen natural enemies as aggregate evaluation criterion of their biological control potential of Tuta absoluta

• Autores: Lenteren, Joop C. van; Lanzoni, Alberto; Hemerik, Lia; Bueno, Vanda H. P.; Bajonero Cuervo, Johanna G.; Biondi, Antonio; Burgio, Giovanni; Riquelme Virgala, María Begoña
• Año de publicación: 2021
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Scientific Reports; Vol.11; art.10756; https://www.nature.com
• Materia: PEST; POPULATION DENSITY; KILL RATE; TUTA ABSOLUTA; REDUCTION CAPACITY
• Institución: Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía

Fil: Lenteren, Joop C. van. Wageningen University. Laboratory of Entomology. Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Fil: Lanzoni, Alberto. University of Bologna. Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences. Viale Fanin, Bologna, Italy.
Fil: Hemerik, Lia. Wageningen University. Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods. Biometris. Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Fil: Bueno, Vanda H. P. Federal University of Lavras. Department of Entomology. Laboratory of Biological Control. Lavras, Brazil.
Fil: Bajonero Cuervo, Johanna G. Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (USP/ESALQ). Department of Entomology and Acarology. Piracicaba, Brazil.
Fil: Biondi, Antonio. University of Catania. Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Catania, Italy.
Fil: Burgio, Giovanni. University of Bologna. Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences. Viale Fanin, Bologna, Italy.
Fil: Riquelme Virgala, María Begoña. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Departamento de Tecnología. Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Ecologists study how populations are regulated, while scientists studying biological pest control apply population regulation processes to reduce numbers of harmful organisms: an organism (a natural enemy) is used to reduce the population density of another organism (a pest). Finding an effective biological control agent among the tens to hundreds of natural enemies of a pest is a daunting task. Evaluation criteria help in a first selection to remove clearly ineffective or risky species from the list of candidates. Next, we propose to use an aggregate evaluation criterion, the pest kill rate, to compare the pest population reduction capacity of species not eliminated during the first selection. The pest kill rate is the average daily lifetime killing of the pest by the natural enemy under consideration. Pest kill rates of six species of predators and seven species of parasitoids of Tuta absoluta were calculated and compared. Several natural enemies had pest kill rates that were too low to be able to theoretically reduce the pest population below crop damaging densities. Other species showed a high pest reduction capacity and their potential for practical application can now be tested under commercial crop production conditions.
tbls., grafs.