Search results for "Sitobion avenae"

2020

Elucidating the diets of insect predators is important in basic and applied ecology, such as for improving the effectiveness of conservation biological control measures to promote natural enemies of crop pests. Here, we investigated the aphid diet of two common aphid predators in Central European agroecosystems, the native Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus) and the invasive Harmonia axyridis (Pallas; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) by means of high throughput sequencing (HTS). For acquiring insights into diets of mobile flying insects at landscape scale minimizing trapping bias is important, which imposes methodological challenges for HTS. We therefore assessed the suitability of three field s…

Large-scale migration synchrony between parasitoids and their host

2015

1. Parasitoids are a valuable group for conservation biological control. In their role as regulators of aphid pests, it is critical that their lifecycle is synchronised with their hosts in both space and time. This is because a synchronised parasitoid community is more likely to strengthen the overall conservation biological control effect, thus damping aphid numbers and preventing potential outbreaks. One component of this host–parasitoid system was examined, that of migration, and the hypothesis that peak summer parasitoid and host migrations are synchronised in time was tested. 2. Sitobion avenae Fabricius and six associated parasitoids were sampled from 1976 to 2013 using 12.2-m suction…