Abstract
AbstractRecent studies have shown that predatory mites used as biocontrol agents can be loaded with entomopathogenic fungal conidia to increase infection rates in pest populations. Under laboratory conditions, we determined the capacity of two phytoseiid mites, Amblyseius swirskii and Neoseiulus cucumeris to deliver the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana to their prey, Frankliniella occidentalis. Predatory mites were loaded with conidia and released on plants that had been previously infested with first instar prey clustered on a bean leaf. We examined each plant section to characterize the spatial distribution of each interacting organism. Our results showed that A. swirskii delivered high numbers of conidia to thrips infested leaves, thereby increasing the proportion of thrips that came into contact with the fungus. The effect was larger when thrips infestation occurred on young leaves than on old leaves. Neoseiulus cucumeris delivered less conidia to the thrips infested leaves. These patterns result from differences in foraging activity between predatory mite species. Amblyseius swirskii stayed longer on plants, especially within thrips colonies, and had a stronger suppressing effect on thrips than N. cucumeris. Our study suggests that loading certain predatory mite species with fungal conidia can increase their capacity to suppress thrips populations by combining predation and dispersing pathogens.
Funder
Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Nature et Technologies
Anatis Bioprotection Inc. is a biological control company located in Saint-Jacques-de-Mineur, Québec, Canada.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference61 articles.
1. Fuxa, J. R. & Tanada, Y. Basic measurements and observations in Epizootiology In Epizootiology of insect diseases 3–21 (Wiley New York, (1987).
2. Woolhouse, M. E., Taylor, L. H. & Haydon, D. T. Population biology of multihost pathogens. Science 292, 1109–1112 (2001).
3. Grassly, N. C. & Fraser, C. Mathematical models of infectious disease transmission. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 6, 477 (2008).
4. Sih, A., Spiegel, O., Godfrey, S., Leu, S. & Bull, C. M. Integrating social networks, animal personalities, movement ecology and parasites: a framework with examples from a lizard. Anim. Behav. 136, 195–205 (2018).
5. Dougherty, E. R., Seidel, D. P., Carlson, C. J., Spiegel, O. & Getz, W. M. Going through the motions: incorporating movement analyses into disease research. Ecol. Lett. 21, 588–604 (2018).
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献