Abstract
Background and Objectives Cotton whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), is one of the most important pests of field crops, vegetables, and ornamental plants. Parasitoid wasps, Eretmocerus mundus Mercet and Eretmocerus eremicus Rose and Zolnerowich, as well as predatory bug Orius albidipennis Rueter are natural enemies which are used as biocontrol agents to control B. tabaci and play a critical role in reduction of chemical insecticide application. Materials and Methods In this study, experiments were carried out using a Y-tube olfactometer to determine the impact of volatiles emitted from leaves infested by B. tabaci on attraction of natural enemies. Moreover, the effect of presence of one natural enemy on attraction or repellency of another natural enemy was studied. Results Results of olfactory responses showed that infested cucumber leaves were more attractive for all species of natural enemy species, O. albidipennis, E. mundus and E. eremicus, than healthy leaves. The results also showed that O. albidipennis avoided leaves that both species of parasitoid wasps coexist on them. However, presence of O. albidipennis on the leaves as a competitor did not affect the attraction of the parasitoid wasps to infested leaves. Discussion Induced reactions in damaged plants increase their resistance to invasive pests. These changes can affect the reactions of all organisms around the plants including herbivores, pollinators, natural enemies, and even other plants nearby. Previous research confirms our results on attraction of natural enemies to plants injured by B. tabaci. Avoidance of O. albidipennis of patches containing parasitoids may be due to escape from intraguild predation or other reasons like low quality food in such patches. On the other hand, in this study both parasitoids preferred leaves containing O. albidipennis and whitefly nymphs to leaves with only whitefly nymphs. There is a hypothesis that female parasitoids should not avoid the polyphagous predators because they will lose many oviposition locations, as the number of polyphagous predators is too far in agroecosystems. This theory is corresponding well with the results of our study.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by-sa. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Infested cucumber leaves attracted O. albidipennis more than healthy leaves.
- Taxon
- cucumber
Cucumis sativuse0 - Interactor
- O. albidipennisOrius albidipennise0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- attractivee0
- Direction
- more attractivee0
- Comparator
- healthy leavese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“infested cucumber leaves were more attractive for all species of natural enemy species, O. albidipennis, E. mundus and E. eremicus, than healthy leaves”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested cucumber leaves attracted E. mundus more than healthy leaves.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse0
- Interactor
- E. mundusEretmocerus munduse0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- attractivee0
- Direction
- more attractivee0
- Comparator
- healthy leavese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“infested cucumber leaves were more attractive for all species of natural enemy species, O. albidipennis, E. mundus and E. eremicus, than healthy leaves”
Claim · model-written summary
Infested cucumber leaves attracted E. eremicus more than healthy leaves.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativuse0
- Interactor
- E. eremicusEretmocerus eremicuse0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- attractivee0
- Direction
- more attractivee0
- Comparator
- healthy leavese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“infested cucumber leaves were more attractive for all species of natural enemy species, O. albidipennis, E. mundus and E. eremicus, than healthy leaves”
Claim · model-written summary
O. albidipennis avoided cucumber leaves occupied by both parasitoid wasp species.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativust0
- Interactor
- O. albidipennisOrius albidipennise0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- avoided leavese0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“O. albidipennis avoided leaves that both species of parasitoid wasps coexist on them”
t0“cucumber”
Claim · model-written summary
O. albidipennis presence did not affect parasitoid attraction to infested cucumber leaves.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativust0
- Interactor
- parasitoid waspse0biocontrol_agent
- Second interactor
- O. albidipennisOrius albidipennise0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- attraction of the parasitoid waspse0
- Direction
- did not affecte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“presence of O. albidipennis on the leaves as a competitor did not affect the attraction of the parasitoid wasps to infested leaves”
t0“cucumber”
Claim · model-written summary
Both parasitoids preferred cucumber leaves with O. albidipennis and whitefly nymphs over leaves with whitefly nymphs alone.
- Taxon
- cucumberCucumis sativust0
- Interactor
- both parasitoidse0biocontrol_agent
- Second interactor
- O. albidipennisOrius albidipennise0biocontrol_agent
- Outcome
- preferred leavese0
- Direction
- preferrede0
- Comparator
- leaves with only whitefly nymphse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“both parasitoids preferred leaves containing O. albidipennis and whitefly nymphs to leaves with only whitefly nymphs”
t0“cucumber”