Trophic interactions between Tupiocoris cucurbitaceus and Campiloneuropsis cincticornis (Hemiptera: Miridae), two potential neotropical biocontrol agents of horticultural pests

PEÑALBA, J; ROCCA, MARGARITA; LUNA MG; SALAS GERVASSIO NG

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Conferencia; 7th International Entomophagous Insects Conference; 2023

UBA-INTA-CEPAVE

The mirids Tupiocoris cucurbitaceus and Campyloneuropsis cincticornis are abundantentomophagous bugs in organic orchards in NE Buenos Aires province (Argentina).While T. cucurbitaceus has been recently developed as a commercial biocontrol agentin Argentina and Uruguay, against the South American tomato pinworm, Tuta absoluta(Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), another mirid, C. cincticornis, is also being evaluated forthis purpose since it is capable of feeding on T. absoluta eggs and larvae. One aspect toconsider for the use of these species as biocontrol agents of T. absoluta is tounderstand whether they could engage in intraguild predation (IGP) or cannibalistic(CANN) interactions and thus affect their populations and, consequently, their controlsuccess. We tested these interactions, in absence of extraguild prey, and thetreatments were: a) two heterospecific adult females, b) two heterospecific 4th instarnymphs, c) one adult female + one 4th instar nymph of each species, d) two conspecificadult females e) two conspecific 4th instar nymphs, and f) one adult female + one 4thinstar nymph of the same species. IGP was not recorded in any of the treatmentstested, whereas for the CANN trials, C. cincticornis females were only very rarelyobserved consuming conspecific nymphs. These preliminary results suggest that bothpredators could be used together to control T. absoluta and other horticultural pests inthis region.