Resposta funcional de adultos de Cryptolaemus montrouzieri mantidos em dieta artificial predando ovos de Planococcus citri, em laboratório

Abstract

Biological control is widely used as an ally of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to replace pesticides in several commercial crops, including citrus. Citrus farming has great economic importance in the world and in 2022, in Brazil, generated R$19 billion. Research has been carried out to increase the use of the exotic predator Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (Mulsant) (Coleoptera: Coccinelidae) with the aim of minimizing the great damage caused by the mealybug Planococcus citri (Risso, 1813). To achieve this, it is necessary to produce this predator on a large scale and in a sustainable manner. In this sense, Embrapa Cassava and fruit is developing a new breeding protocol on a semi-artificial diet for the development of this predator on an experimental scale. The objective of this work was to determine the predator's functional response and investigate whether semiartificial feeding, after five generations of C. montrouzieri, affected the predation capacity on P. citri eggs. The research was carried out at Embrapa Cassava and fruit (CNPMF), in Cruz das Almas-BA. P. citri eggs and C. montrouzieri adults were donated from the insectary creation of the CNPMF Entomology Laboratory. The experiment consisted of arrangements of both sexes of insects from the 5th generation onwards, fed with an artificial diet at different densities of P. citri eggs (200, 300, 400, 500, 600), with five replications for each sex. C. montrouzieri predation on P. citri eggs showed a type II functional response, in which prey consumption quickly followed the increase in density until stabilizing in the highest populations. Artificial feeding did not affect the predation capacity of C. montrouzieri adults on P. citri eggs in the laboratory. Males and females of C. montrouzieri from the treatment showed no differences between them in the consumption of P. citri eggs.