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Publications (81)
The stink bug, Eocanthecona furcellata Wolff (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) shows significant promise as a biological control agent against lepidopteran pests in tropical and subtropical areas. However, securing suitable food remains a persistent issue for the mass rearing of this beneficial insect. To understand how different feeding strategies impact...
Compared with traditional biological control, the co-use of entomopathogenic fungi and multiple enemies has
made great progress in biocontrol technology. However, the risk posed by entomopathogenic fungi to their host
has not been fully evaluated. Further, the interaction between them has not described adequately. In this study,
we investigated the...
Pre-stimulation of plants can change their resistance mechanisms, thereby enhancing their defense responses. Beauveria bassiana, a broad-spectrum entomogenous fungi, can also induce plant defenses, but it received little attention. Here, we show that B. bassiana can act as a stimulus to prime tomato defense responses, improving resistance in the pl...
Herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) play a crucial role in regulating interactions among multiple spe-
cies, including triggering defense responses in neighboring plants. In this study, cowpea plants infested with Tetranychus
urticae released substantial amounts of HIPVs, particularly methyl salicylate (MeSA). To investigate the impact of exp...
The nutritional content of prey plays a pivotal role in shaping the predatory behavior and effectiveness of natural
pest control agents like Eocanthecona furcellata. We assessed the biological performance and life history of
E. furcellata on three diets, larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda, larvae of Tenebrio molitor, and an artificial diet. We
also an...
High temperature-adapted natural enemies may exhibit improved biocontrol effiicacy in hot weather, but
transgenerational stability of the trait may affect practical applications. Neoseiulus barkeri is a commercially
produced biocontrol agent, and a high temperature-adapted strain (HTAS) has been developed. Thermotolerance
and the activity of antiox...
Tomato red spider mite Tetranychus evansi Baker and Pritchard (Acari: Tetranychidae) is a phytophagous pest that causes severe damage to Solanaceous plants worldwide, resulting in significant economic losses. In this study, the maximum entropy model was used to predict the potential current (1970–2000) and future (2021–2060) global distribution of...
Three new species of the feather mite genus Proterothrix Gaud, 1968 (Proctophyllodidae: Pterodectinae) are described from passerines (Aves: Passeriformes) in China: Proterothrix angusticorporis sp. n. from the Chestnut-tailed Minla Actinodura strigula (Hodgson, 1837) (Leiothrichidae), P. disulcatus sp. n. from the Spectacled Fulvetta Fulvetta rufic...
Background
The biological control agent Phytoseiulus persimilis is a commercialized specialist predator of two agricultural pest mite species Tetranychus urticae and Tetranychus evansi. Biocontrol of these pest species by P. persimilis has achieved success in biological control in some areas. However, the lack of precise information about the influ...
BACKGROUND
Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) treatment of plants may affect the survival and feeding preferences of herbivorous pests. However, comprehensive studies on the fitness across their entire life cycle, feeding behavior, and physiological changes in herbivores consuming EPF‐treated plants within the tripartite interactions of EPF, plants, and...
Parental care behavior has evolved as a life history strategy to improve reproductive success, particularly in organisms facing challenging environments. However, the variation in maternal care, such as egg-guarding behavior in response to the social environment and the associated ecological consequence of competition, remains largely unknown. This...
This chapter presents a synthesis of the concepts and potential of ecostacking, as well as outlining future strategies to implement the ecostacking techniques. The key methods covered in the book include well established techniques such as management of botanical diversity (e.g. cover crops, intercrops, trap crops, crop plant genetic diversity), ju...
Penthaleus major (Dugés) is a significant agricultural pest that attacks various pasture, vegetable, and crop plants. Temperature plays a critical role in the life history of P. major. However, there is limited understanding of its life table at different temperatures and cold tolerance. This study aimed to elucidate the performance of P. major by...
Beauveria bassiana acts as an endophytic fungus that controls herbivorous pests by stimulating plant defenses and inducing systemic resistance. Through multiomics analysis, 325 differential metabolites and 1739 differential expressed genes were observed in tomatoes treated with B. bassiana by root irrigation; meanwhile, 152 differential metabolites...
The predatory mites Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) and the predatory thrips Scolothrips takahashii (Priesner) are known as potential biocontrol agents for the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae (Koch). These two predator species occur simultaneously on crops in agricultural ecosystems and are proved to be involved in life-stage specific intra...
Predatory mites are important biological control agents for phytophagous mites and several small insect pests on vegetables, while the control efficiency is often limited by the changeable or fluctuating environment, especially under the threat of global warming. To mitigate the undesired impacts of high temperature environment, a high-temperature...
Blue oat mite species, including Penthaleus major and P. tectus, are pests widely distributed across China that cause damage to winter wheat. This study evaluated the genetic diversity of P. major and P. tectus on Triticum hosts collected from 23 geographic locations based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences. We identifi...
The predatory mite, Neoseiulus barkeri, is more tolerant to the entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana, than small sap-feeding pests. Infection of insects by B. bassiana can induce insect innate immune response, and the spätzle protein (Spz), an important ligand of the insect Toll pathway, has been demonstrated to play an important role in ins...
The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a cosmopolitan, polyphagous agricultural pest that poses serious threats to agricultural production globally. Beauveria bassiana , an entomopathogenic fungi (EPF), cannot only directly kill a variety of pests but also inhibit the occurrence of pests as fungal endophytes within plants. In this study, we explored how th...
Whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a polyphagous super pest, which causes serious threat to agricultural production globally. Beauveria bassiana , as entomopathogenic fungi (EPF), can not only directly kill a variety of pests, but also inhibit the occurrence of pests as fungal endophytes within plants. In this study, we explored how the introduction of B....
A new feather mite species Proctophyllodes gracilitus sp. nov. is described from the mountain bulbul Ixos mcclellandii (Horsfield) (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae) in China. The new species belongs to the mecistocaulus species-group and differs from the most similar species, P. stenophyllus Gaud & Mouchet, 1957, by having the following characters: in...
The predatory mites Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) and the predatory thrips Scolothrips takahashii (Priesner) are known as potential biocontrol agents for the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae (Koch). These two predator species occur simultaneously on crops in agricultural ecosystems and are proved to be involved in life-stage specific intra...
Olfactory plays a crucial role for arthropods in foraging, mating and oviposition. Odorant-binding protein gene (OBP) was considered one of the most important olfactory genes. However, little is known about its functions in predatory mites. Here, we used Neoseiulus barkeri, an important commercialized natural enemy, to explore its chemosensory char...
The feather mite genus Proctophyllodes Robin, 1868 (Analgoidea: Proctophyllodidae) is the most speciose genus in this family, with 181 species placed in 12 species groups. Currently, only 13 species of Proctophyllodes from Passeriformes were recorded in China: P. anthi Vitzthum, 1922, P. ceratophyllus Atyeo & Braasch, 1966, P. garrula Wang, Wang &...
Neoseiulus barkeri is a generalist biological control agent of multiple insect pests (Hao et al., 2021). Its development, reproduction and predation ability were negatively affected by short-term heat treatment (Li et al., 2021), further affecting its biocontrol efficiency. We established a high-temperature adapted strain (HTAS) of N. barkeri throu...
Ecostacking, maximising the benefts of ecosystem services, implies to combine in an additive or synergistic manner the beneficial services of functional biodiversity from all levels and types (Hokkanen and Menzler-Hokkanen, 2018). Historically, studies of biological control focused on interactions between different prey species and shared predators...
The Pterodectinae is one of the two subfamilies (Pterodectinae and proctophllodinae) in the Proctophyllodidae and its members are characterized by the continuous tips of epigynum with epimerites IIIa and IV forming a keyhole-shaped structure. The feather mite genus Proterothrix Guad, 1968 along with seven more genera, belongs to the “Phroterothrix...
The application of Beauveria bassiana is proved to be a feasible biological control measure against pest insects and mites (e.g. Liu et al. 2018; Al Khoury et al. 2020). But the complex and variable ecological environment can affect the efficiency of B. bassiana. Due to the powerful search and spread ability of predatory mites, they were proposed t...
Predicting the potential distribution area of Neoseiulus barkeri can provide a good understanding of the habitat range of the N. barkeri and assess the possibility of overwintering in the release site (Khadem et al. 2021). The study of the habitat of N. barkeri can be used to determine whether it can overwinter in released areas and to assess its p...
Predatory mites were the second largest group of natural enemies, where some species have been commercialized and used worldwide for pest biological control. Two important predatory mite species Phytoseiulus persimilis and Neoseiulus cucumeris have been introduced to China for the control of mite and small insect pests in greenhouses and open field...
Pollen as one of the most important supplementary food benefits the generalist predators in many aspects. However, little is known about the performance of generalist predators with type IV lifestyle when they are reared continuously on prey supplemented with pollen for many generations. In this study, the life history traits of the predatory mites...
Trade-off theory has long been the central to evolutionary biology and is extensively employed to explain the correlations between life-history traits. It is generally accepted that trade-off occurs when one trait cannot increase without a decrease in another. In this study, we collected data on spider mites (70 papers for females and 35 papers for...
Phytoseiid mites frequently experience stress under changing or fluctuating environments especially in hot and dry agroecosystems. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway is known to mediate environmental stress response involved in different signaling transduction pathways. In this study, a high temperature acclimated strain...
Artificial diets (ADs) facilitate cost-effective mass rearing of many natural enemies. A life table analysis was conducted to compare the performance of Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes reared on four ADs and its prey, Tetranychus urticae Koch and Aleuroglyphus ovatus (Troupeau). The ADs were enriched with Bombyx mori (L.) hemolymph (AD1), Artemia francis...
Predatory mites, that are important natural enemies of small sap-feeding pests, often tolerate various fluctuating environmental stresses. DNA methylation has been demonstrated to play critical roles in regulating transcriptional changes in response to environmental stress. To investigate whether the thermal tolerance of a high temperature acclimat...
Large-scale use of systemic pesticides has been considered a potential factor for pollinator population decline. Phytochemicals, e.g., quercetin, have been demonstrated to increase the pesticide tolerance of Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae), which is helpful to develop strategies to reduce the pesticides hazards to pollinators. In this...
Panonychus citri is a major pest mite that is of great economic importance in most citrus orchards in China. Utilizing native predatory natural enemies is one of the useful biological control strategies to maintain pest population below the level where damage occurs for an extended period of time. Although a handful of pesticides and predatory natu...
Rice leaffolders are important pests on rice in Asia, Oceania, and Africa, causing serious loss to rice production. There are two main rice leaffolders in China, namely Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenée) and C. exigua (Butler) with the former having the ability of long-distance migration. To reveal the differences in the mitochondrial genomes (mitog...
BACKGROUND
In fluctuating climatic environments, heat acclimation in predatory mites is a superior adaptation strategy for effective agricultural pest management and can be used to enhance the abilities critical in biological control efficiency. We investigated the regulatory mechanism governing the remarkable plastic response of thermotolerance in...
In arthropods, a host of studies focused on insect olfactory systems, where most functional proteins including odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) and chemosensory proteins (CSPs) have been identified. However, in other arthropods such as ticks and mites, genes encoding for OBPs and CSPs are absent. The Niemann-Pick type C2 (NPC2), as a third class of...
Beauveria bassiana, an entomopathogenic fungus, can exist asymptomatically as an endophyte in many plants. This study aimed to determine the efficiency of B. bassiana colonization of tomato plants using different inoculation methods, and how colonization of the host plant affects the key pest of tomato, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. To confirm funga...
Cannibalism and intraguild predation (IGP) are two common interactions occurs in animal kingdom which influence their population structure and dynamics. Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) and Scolothrips takahashii (Priesner) are important natural enemies of citrus red mite Panonychus citri (McGregor). However, little was known about their interactions an...
In our previous study, we reported a high temperature adapted strain (HTAS) of the predatory mite Neoseiulus barkeri was artificially selected via a long-term heat acclimation (35°C) and frequent heat hardenings. To understand the molecular basis of heat acclimation, ‘omics’ analyses were performed to compare the differences between HTAS female adu...
We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Bactrocera scutellata (Diptera: Tephritidae), which is an economically important pest in many area of East Asia. This mitogenome is 15,850 bp in length with an A + T content of 72.99%, and contains 37 typical animal mitochondrial genes that are arranged in the same order a...
Four new species of the feather mite genus Mesalgoides (Acariformes: Psoroptoididae: Pandalurinae) are described from passerine birds (Passeriformes) in China: Mesalgoides morrisonia sp. nov. from Alcippe morrisonia Swinhoe (Leiothrichidae), M. vinacea sp. nov. from Carpodacus vinaceus Verreaux (Fringillidae), M. flammicepis sp. nov. from Cephalopy...
Organisms are always confronted with multiple stressors simultaneously. Combinations of stressors, rather than single stressor, may be more appropriate in evaluating the stress they experience. N. barkeri is one of predatory mite species that are commercialized for controlling spider mites. However, their biological control efficiency was often red...
Cys2-His2 zinc finger (C2H2-ZF) proteins represent the most common class of transcription factors. These factors have great potential for the management of developmental progression by regulating the specific spatiotemporal expression of genes. In this study, we cloned one C2H2-ZF protein gene of Bombyx mori, BGIBMGA000319, that is orthologous to B...
Laodelphax striatellus is naturally infected with the Wolbachia strain wStri, which induces strong cytoplasmic incompatibility of its host. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous non-coding small RNAs that play a critical role in the regulation of gene expression at post-transcriptional level in various biological processes. Despite various s...
Cys2-His2 zinc finger (C2H2-ZF) proteins comprise the largest class of putative eukaryotic transcription factors. The zinc finger motif array is highly divergent, indicating that most proteins will have distinctive binding sites and perform different functions. However, the binding sites and functions of the majority of C2H2-ZF proteins remain unkn...
Biological control of spider mites in hot and dry weather is a serious technical issue. A high-temperature adapted strain (HTAS) of the predatory mite Neoseiulus barkeri Hughes was selected from its conventional strain (CS), via long-term heat acclimation and frequent heat hardenings in our previous studies. However, the environment of high tempera...
Four new species of the feather mite genus Anhemialges (Astigmata: Analgidae) are described from passeriform birds in China: A. lioparus sp. nov. from the Golden–breasted Fulvetta Lioparus chrysotis (Passeriformes, Paradoxornithidae); A. aegithalos sp. nov. from the Black–throated Tit Aegithalos concinnus (Passeriformes, Aegithalidae); A. seicercus...
To explore the effects of heat shock proteins in the conventional strain (CS) and high temperature-adapted strain (HTAS) of Neoseiulus barkeri, we cloned and characterized the cDNA of the NbHsp40, NbHsp60, NbHsp70, and NbHsp90 genes and examined changes in expression levels with short-term exposure to heat or cold stress. All four of the genes show...
The predatory mite Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) is a good biological control agent for many small sucking pests. We aimed to determine whether rearing long term on alternative prey versus target prey species affected the performance of N. barkeri. Therefore, we investigated the prey preference, life tables, and population parameters of N. barkeri be...
Eotetranychus kankitus Ehara (Acari: Tetranychidae) is an important pest in Chinese citrus orchards. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the potential of Neoseiulus barkeri (Hughes) (Acari: Phytoseiidae) for the biological control of E. kankitus. A two-sex life table of E. kankitus and N. barkeri was constructed to estimate development and f...
The insect male accessory glands/ejaculatory duct (MAG/ED) are important tissues of the male reproductive system. The MAG/ED's functions in reproduction have been well studied in Drosophila (Diptera: Drosophilidae) but remain largely unknown in the important agricultural pest Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae). In the present study...
Phospholipid hydroperoxide glutathione peroxidase (PHGPX) is an antioxidant enzyme that plays a crucial role in metabolizing phospholipid hydroperoxides in membrane against oxidative damage. Here, two PHGPX genes from the predatory mite Neoseiulus barkeri were identified and characterized (NbPHGPX1 and NbPHGPX2). Alignment analysis of NbPHGPX1 and...
Traditional estimating only by measuring the lethal effect of acaricides may underestimate the total effects of acaricides on the pest mites. In order to investigate the sublethal effect of bifenazate on life history and population parameters of the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, the newly emerged females were treated with two l...
Climate change predictions depict scenarios where arthropods will be more intensely and frequently exposed to extreme high temperatures. A short period of heat stress is unlikely to cause directly mortality but may modify population dynamics via impacting life history traits. In this study, the newly-emerged female and male adults of the predatory...
Two new species of the feather mite genus Analloptes Trouessart, 1885 (Xolalgidae: Ingrassiinae) are described from birds in China: Analloptes turnicis Mu and Wang sp. nov. ex barred buttonquail, Turnix suscitator (Gmelin, 1789) (Charadriiformes: Turnicidae) from Guizhou; and A. qujingensis Su and Wang sp. nov. ex redbilled chough, Pyrrhocorax pyrr...
We sequenced and annotated the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Bactrocera diaphora (Diptera: Tephtitidae), which is an economically important pest in the southwest area of China, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Malaysia. This mitogenome is 15 890 bp in length with an A + T content of 74.103%, and contains 37 typical animal mitochondrial...
The mold mite, Tyrophagus putrescentiae (Schrank), is an alternative prey for the predatory mites used in biological control. In order to maximize the food supply and maintain the population of predators, it is very important to understand the effects of bran moisture content (BMC) and initial population density (IPD) on mass production of T. putre...
Three new species of the genus Passeroptes (Acariformes: Dermationidae) are described from passerine birds (Passeriformes) in China: Passeroptes formosus sp. nov. from Garrulax formosus formosus (Verreaux) (Guizhou), P. poecilorhynchus sp. nov. from Garrulax poecilorhynchus berthemyi (David and Oustalet) (Guizhou), and P. picae sp. nov. from Pica p...
Changes in temperature are known to cause a variety of physiological stress responses in insects and mites. Thermal stress responses are usually associated with the increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in oxidative damage. In this study, we examined the time-related effect (durations for 1, 2, 3, and 5 h) of thermal stre...
Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), is the most destructive pest of potato in many countries of the world. It first invaded China from Kazakhstan in 1990s and now is a major pest of potato in many areas of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of temperature on the...
The development, survival, and reproduction of Euseius nicholsi (Ehara & Lee) (Acari: Phytoselidae), an important and rapacious predatory mite that feeds on Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval), were evaluated at six constant temperatures between 19 degrees C and 32 degrees C. The temperature range 22 degrees C to 28 degrees C was found to be optim...
The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is an economically important pest of crops worldwide, attacking plants from over 20 families including trans-continental agricultural cotton, corn and citrus crops. In this study, performance and subsequent enzyme activity of beet armyworm reared on host plants from five families were i...
We explored the influence of the artificial diets with different protein and glucose contents on larval development, fecundity and enzyme activities of the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua (Hübner). Our results suggested that development, fecundity and population growth index of beet armyworm increased with increased nutritional content in the artif...
Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) and Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) are the two most important long-distance migratory insect pests that cause great yield losses to rice in China. Accurate long-term population forecast is needed to implement effective management strategies for these two rice pests. In this paper, a transition probability matrix of 5-yr ste...
The differences of bionomics and ecologies of the two populations of Callosobruchus chinensis on mung bean (Vigna radiatus) at six constant temperatures (20, 25, 28, 30, 32, 35°C) and 75% r. h. were researched. ANOVA showed that temperature affected the developmental period and fertility significantly (P < 0.05). T-test indicated there was signific...
The simulation study under laboratory condition showed that the functional responses of Typhlodromus bambuse to Schizotetranychus bambuse at different development stages could be expressed by the curve of Holling Type II. The number of prey consumed by predator quickly increased with initial prey density, but soon leveled off. At 25 +/- 0.5 degrees...
The survival and fecundity of the spider mite, Schizotetranychus bambusae Reck, on the detached leaves of the moso bamboo, Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel, from 1–4yr-old bamboo plants, were evaluated in the laboratory. The age-specific and time-specific life tables of the experimental populations of S. bambusae were constructed. The relationship bet...
Development, survivorship, reproduction and procreation isolation of Schizotetranychus bambusae from the bamboo species Phyllostachys pubescens and Neosinocalamus affinis reared on different host plants were evaluated in laboratory. The results showed that the population of S. bambusae from Phyllostachys pubescens (PhS) failed to complete its life...
Development, survivorship, and reproduction of the mite Schizotetranychus bambusae Reck reared on fresh bamboo leaf were evaluated at 5 constant temperatures (21, 24, 27, 30, and 33°C). The development time from egg to adult varied from 16.7 d at 21°C to 7.6 d at 33°C. The developmental thresholds for egg, larva, protonymph, deurtonymph, pre-ovipos...
