Robert H. J. Verkerk

The potential for manipulating crop–pest–natural enemy interactions for improved insect pest management

This review identifies key ways in which manipulations of the crop environment based on detailed understanding of tritrophic interactions can contribute to improvements in the control of insect pests. Such approaches are likely to be of particular benefit against those pests, notably certain species of Lepidoptera and aphid, which are difficult to control with insecticides because of insecticide resistance or suppression of natural enemies. Particular attention is given to the compatibility (or otherwise) of partial plant resistance and biological control, citing examples which support contrasting tritrophic theories. Other areas considered and supported with examples include the use or effects of allelochemicals, refugia, intercropping, crop backgrounds, fertilization regimes, parasitoid conditioning (by host plants) and transgenic crops. Examples of manipulations involving use of selective insecticides which show compatibility with biological methods are also included owing to their possible suitability in integrated crop management programmes.

Aphids on cabbage: tritrophic and selective insecticide interactions

Laboratory-based experiments are presented involving two aphid sepcies ( Myzus persicae Sulzer, a generalist and Brevicoryne brassicae Linnaeus, a crucifer specialist), and the predatory gall midge, Aphidoletes aphidimyza Rondani, on three cultivars of common cabbage Brassica oleracea var. capitata cv. Derby Day (green-leaved), Minicole (green-leaved) and Ruby Ball (red-leaved). In a laboratory-based tritrophic system including both species of aphid, the three cabbage cultivars and A. aphidimyza , predator both species of aphid, the three feeding on M. persicae or B. brassicae on cv. Derby Day, while growth was slowest separate experiment, A. asphidimyza larva feeding on B. brassicae on each of the three cultivars were significantly smaller and consumed less aphid fresh weight when maintained outdoors (mean temperature = 13.5°C) compared with a constant environment room (20°C). However, in this latter experiment under neither regime were differeneces in predator growth or consumption significant between cultivars. Effects of selective insecticides (pirimicarb and a neem seed kernel extract, NeemAzal-T/S R ) on bitrophic (aphid-host plant) interactions were also investigated in the laboratory. A pirimicarb dose equating to c . 15% of the recommended field concentration caused equivalent toxicity of M. persicae on cv. Minicole compared with aphids treated with a three-fold greater dose and reared on cv. Derby Day. Cultivar-mediated differences in aphid mortality caused by the neem extract when tested for systemic and translaminar activity were not apparent. The results are discussed in relation to ways in which host plant selection, selective insecticides and biological control could potentially be manipulated and optimized in aphid management system on brassica crops.

Effects of interactions between host plants and selective insecticides on larvae of Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae) in the laboratory

The residual toxicity of two selective insecticides, teflubenzuron (acylurea) and Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner ssp. aizawai (microbial), to laboratory and field strains of Plutella xylostella L. was shown in the laboratory to be significantly affected by leaf nutritional status, other host-plant resistance factors, cultivation method and plant age. With plants offering some degree of host-plant resistance, the toxicity of the insecticides was either increased or decreased compared with highly susceptible plants, depending on the specific nature of the plant-herbivore interaction. Differences in residual toxicity of the insecticides varied up to nine-fold on different host plants (= host-plant- + insecticide-induced mortality) despite less than four-fold differences in P. xylostella mortality in controls (= host-plant-induced mortality alone). Host-plant nutritional status also had a substantial effect on the damage potential of larvae. Different response times by P. xylostella to the two insecticides tested on host plants of varying nutritional status were related to the contrasting modes of action of the respective active ingredients. The present studies suggest that insecticides applied to Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata with partial plant resistance may contribute to improved control of P. xylostella. A conceptual model is used to describe likely mortality responses by macrophagous larvae to insecticides applied to plants of varying resistance status. The implications of the findings in relation to the integrated management of P. xylostella are considered.