Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Charleston, South Carolina » Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #392810
Research Project: Basic and Applied Approaches for Pest Management in Vegetable Crops

Location: Vegetable Research

Title: Ranking common predators of Bemisia tabaci in Georgia agricultural landscapes with diagnostic PCR: implications of primer specific post-feeding detection time

Author
item KHEIRONDIN, ARASH - University Of Georgia
item Simmons, Alvin
item SCHMIDT, JASON - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: BioControl
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/7/2022
Publication Date: 7/26/2022
Citation: Kheirondin, A., Simmons, A.M., Schmidt, J.M. 2022. Ranking common predators of Bemisia tabaci in Georgia agricultural landscapes with diagnostic PCR: implications of primer specific post-feeding detection time. BioControl. 67:497-511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-022-10153-7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-022-10153-7

Interpretive Summary: Natural enemies are important in and around agricultural fields for reducing populations of pests like whiteflies. However, some predators of whiteflies may contribute more to reducing pest populations than other predators. A study was conducted to identify and rank the most importance whitefly predators in the agricultural landscape. Results from this study supports that some DNA methods are more effective than others in identifying what predators have eaten. Several predators, including those who feed by sucking (such as minute pirate bugs and big-eyed bugs) or chewing (such as fire ants and lady beetles), and spiders, were identified as being highly ranked for feeding on whiteflies in the field. These findings will help pest management practitioners in developing a successful biological control program for whiteflies and other pests in field settings.

Technical Abstract: Developing a successful biological control program relies on understanding predator-prey interactions in agroecosystem field settings. Among several methods used, molecular gut content analysis (MGCA) has become a popular method to measure predator contributions to pest control services. Once MGCA is applied to diagnose predator-prey interactions, the DNA detectability half-life is often applied to adjust for differences in prey digestion time among predators. Although MGCA best practices are well established, with many primers available, further work is needed to rank among published primers for MGCA. Using a combination of laboratory feeding trials and application of diagnostic MGCA to field collected predators, we investigated Bemisia tabaci post feeding detection times in three dominant predator functional groups (chewing, piercing/sucking bugs, and spiders). This was based on three published B. tabaci-specific primers. These data reveal that primer choice generated significantly different B. tabaci DNA half-lives in predator gut content. The primers with longer half-life resulted in higher field predation frequency estimation. Our field data using the primer with the longest half-life suggest several abundant predators, including Hippodamia convergens, Geocoris punctipes, Orius spp., Thomisidae spider, and fire ants (Solenopsis invicta), are actively feeding on B. tabaci in cotton fields. Orius spp. and fire ants were the most abundant predator species in our study area and contributed the most to B. tabaci control. Our results suggest that primers can be classified based on their specific DNA half-lives and can be used to address different ecological questions such as how to study time-specific predation detection (i.e., nocturnal or diurnal).