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Intra-guild interactions in the parasitoid community of the codling moth and potential interference with biological control agents: how to optimize biological control by functional biodiversity?
Project
Project code: JKI-BI-08-1202
Contract period: 01.07.2013
- 31.10.2013
Purpose of research: Applied research
Following principles of Integrated Pest Management, the current EU-strategy for the sustainable use of plant protection products (Official Journal of the European Union, 2009) and the Tunisian Legislation (2001), demand the involvement of natural regulative processes into pest control. However, it is important to ensure that the various components of IPM are compatible. In fact, understanding the role of intraguild interactions may contribute to an effective pest management strategy when multiple natural enemies may be necessary to control a given pest. Nevertheless, because different pest species have different biologies and different arrays of natural enemies, pest control solutions need largely to be developed on a case by case basis.
Codling moth, Cydia pomonella (Lepidoptera, Tortricidae) is the key pest in apple production worldwide due to direct damage of fruits and increasingly resistance against insecticides as well as viral biopesticides. Parasitoids of all developmental stages are known and their biology had been partially studied in the last century, however their occurrence, diversity, intraguild interaction, foodweb relationship and impact on codling moth populations in conventional, integrated and organic fruit growing under current conditions is less well understood.
Thus, for the reasons mentioned here, we intend in the present project to set a series of experiments aimed to study and understand the interactions that can occur between the natural enemies of C. pomonella (i.e. parasitoids and entomopathogenes). The purpose behind such research is to verify if the combination of multiple biological control means will favour or impair the success of this control method.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Protection
- Arboriculture
