
Stephen D WrattenLincoln University · Bio-Protection Research Centre
Stephen D Wratten
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Publications (524)
Sodium (Na) concentrations are low in plant tissues, and its metabolic function in plants is minor; however, Na is a key nutrient for plant consumers. Previous studies have thus far focused on Na concentration. Nevertheless, a balanced potassium (K) to Na ratio (K:Na) is more important than Na concentration alone since food with high K:Na has detri...
An insect’s fitness varies on different host plant species, and can be affected by previous host feeding experience. In New Zealand, Bactericera cockerelli (the tomato potato psyllid (TPP)) overwinter on various host species, and later migrate to annually grown crop host plants. How changing host plant species affects the insect’s fitness is unknow...
The tomato-potato psyllid (TPP), Bactericera cockerelli, is a serious pest of solanaceous crops. As an alternative to the use of insecticides, we tested the potential of the mirid bug Engytatus nicotianae (adults) as a biocontrol agent of TPP on greenhouse tomato plants. The experiment comprised: a) a laboratory choice feeding assay to investigate...
1. Honey bees require minerals for a complete diet. However, minerals from flowers can be inadequate in concentration and composition. Therefore, honey bees may drink ‘dirty water’ from natural sources such as puddles. Some research has attempted to simulate this through honey bee bioassays, but to date, these have tested minerals individually, not...
The tomato–potato psyllid (TPP) Bactericera cockerelli, is a serious pest of solanaceous crops. Some populations are becoming pesticide-resistant, increasing the need for alternatives such as biological control (BC). This approach may be improved by combining different species of BC agents. We conducted three separate experiments to test four BC ag...
The adoption of agro-ecological practices in agricultural systems worldwide can contribute to increased food production without compromising future food security, especially under the current biodiversity loss and climate change scenarios. Despite the increase in publications on agro-ecological research and practices during the last 35 years, a wea...
In Central and North America, Australia and New Zealand, potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) crops are attacked by Bactericera cockerelli , the tomato potato psyllid (TPP). ‘Mesh crop covers’ which are used in Europe and Israel to protect crops from insect pests, have been used experimentally in New Zealand for TPP control. While the covers have been effe...
Radish, Raphanus sativus is an important vegetable crop worldwide. It is the second most important vegetable after cabbage and cauliflower in winter (January to March) in Nepal. This crop is damaged by various herbivores such as the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, the soybean hairy caterpillar, Spilarctia casigneta and the flea beetle, Monolepta...
• The wheat bug Nysius huttoni is a major pest of brassica seedlings. Management of this insect currently relies on seed treatment with neonicotinoids and spraying with chlorpyrifos and pyrethroid insecticides. These practices can generate severe external costs, including human health, the environment and biodiversity. Trap cropping is one alternat...
Monocropping elevates many insects to the status of economic pests. In these agroecosystems, non-crop habitats are sometimes deployed as trap crops to reduce pest damage. This environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides can be particularly fitting when dealing with native invaders that may be afforded legal protection or enjoy public sympath...
Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance...
Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield–related ecosystem services can be maintained by a few dominant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 studies (with 1475 locations), we partition the relative importance...
The tomato/potato psyllid (TPP), Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera, Triozidae), is an adventive psyllid in New Zealand that is a major pest of solanaceous crops and a serious threat to growers in the glasshouse industry. Worldwide, evaluation of potential biological control (BC) agents is normally conducted using single species and this is the case...
Weed floral resources are often overlooked in biological control manipulations, yet common species in this group can contribute to enhanced biological control efficacy. Weed floral resources may not be examined as frequently as certain insectary species (buckwheat). Furthermore, they may require less maintenance and are adapted to grow in the plant...
The New Zealand endemic wheat bug, Nysius huttoni (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), is a pest of brassica seedlings. However, it has a wide host range comprising almost all cultivated brassicas, cereals and many other cultivated crops, as well as weeds. The brassica alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is a potential trap crop of N. huttoni, having the potential to...
Weed floral resources are often overlooked in biological control manipulations, yet common species in this group can contribute to enhanced biological control efficacy. Weed floral resources may not be examined as frequently as certain insectary species (buckwheat). Furthermore, they may require less maintenance and are adapted to grow in the plant...
Habitat management is an important strategy for pest control in integrated pest management (IPM). Various categories of habitat management such as trap cropping, intercropping, natural enemy refuges such as 'beetle banks', and floral resources for parasitoids and predators, have been used in applied insect ecology for many years. In a broader sense...
Invertebrates make up over 95% of animal biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is a core component of sustainable intensification of agriculture, yet its importance is routinely overlooked. Here we report a macr...
The benefits of shelter in increasing crop yields and accelerating ripening has been well researched in fruit, arable and horticultural crops. Its benefits to pasture, despite its importance for livestock production, is less well researched. In this work, Miscanthus shelterbelts were established on an intensively irrigated dairy farm. Seven key eco...
Human land use threatens global biodiversity and compromises multiple ecosystem functions critical to food production. Whether crop yield-related ecosystem services can be maintained by few abundant species or rely on high richness remains unclear. Using a global database from 89 crop systems, we partition the relative importance of abundance and s...
Seedlings of kale cultivars in New Zealand are highly susceptible to direct feeding by the wheat bug Nysius huttoni (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), an endemic insect pest.
Two assays (choice and no-choice) were conducted to compare the relative susceptibility of seedlings of the six most popular kale cultivars in New Zealand (Kestrel, Gruner, Sovereign, Re...
The wheat bug, Nysius huttoni White, mainly reported as a pest of wheat and forage brassicas, is native to New Zealand. This pest has been accidentally introduced into The Netherland and Belgium during apple exports from New Zealand. The bug population is abundant in open sparse vegetations and hot-dry habitats, and feeds on dropping seeds. It dama...
Meeting the growing global demand for agricultural products requires the development and use of ecologically-based strategies that will allow sustainable intensification based on ecosystem services. An important component of this approach is conservation biological control. This approach encompasses a variety of management practices that protect na...
Climate change affects agriculture through a range of direct and indirect pathways. These include direct changes to impacts of pests and diseases on crops and indirect effects produced by interactions between organisms. It remains unclear whether the net effects of these biotic influences will be beneficial or detrimental to crop yield because few...
Data from the experiments used in the analyses.
(XLSX)
Methods details.
Filename “S1 Appendix.docx”: Full details of methods, Tables of path analysis results and Fig A: Mean monthly temperatures and precipitation for the study area.
(DOCX)
Biological control, a globally-important ecosystem service, can provide long-term and broad-scale suppression of invasive pests, weeds and pathogens in natural, urban and agricultural environments. Following (few) historic cases that led to sizeable environmental up-sets, the discipline of arthropod biological control has—over the past decades—evol...
Although sphingomyelins are lipid constituents of the plasma membrane in vertebrates, much remains obscure about the metabolism of sphingomyelins in insects. With UPLC‐TOF‐MS/MS analysis, we revealed for the first time that sphingomyelins are abundant in Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), the brown planthopper (BPH), and their biosynthesis is carried out b...
Invertebrates make up 97-99% of biodiversity on Earth and contribute to multiple ecosystem services (ES) in both natural and human-dominated systems. One such service, biological control (BC) of herbivorous pests, is a core component of sustainable intensification of agriculture, yet its importance is routinely overlooked. Here we report a macro-sc...
Adult grass grubs (Costelytra zealandica White: Coleoptera: Melolonthinae) have become an important threat to several horticultural crops in New Zealand in the last 40 years. Among those, grape vines have been severely damaged, producing important economic losses. In an attempt to reduce the current non-sustainable management of this pest based on...
Significance
Decades of research have fostered the now-prevalent assumption that noncrop habitat facilitates better pest suppression by providing shelter and food resources to the predators and parasitoids of crop pests. Based on our analysis of the largest pest-control database of its kind, noncrop habitat surrounding farm fields does affect multi...
The sustainable intensification of agricultural systems offers synergistic opportunities for the co-production of agricultural and natural capital outcomes. Efficiency and substitution are steps towards sustainable intensification, but system redesign is essential to deliver optimum outcomes as ecological and economic conditions change. We show glo...
Seedlings of kale cultivars are highly susceptible to direct feeding by the wheat bug Nysius huttoni (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), an endemic New Zealand insect pest. Damage from this pest leads to reduced plant establishment so is currently managed by prophylactic use of pesticides. Encouraging farmers to use less susceptible kale cultivars can reduce p...
Flowering plants have been widely used to enhance biological control. However, this approach has been limited to some extent by the lack of suitable flowering plant species of wide applicability, particularly for global pests. A key example is the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (GPA). It is commonly attacked by the polyphagous koinobiont aphidii...
Biological control constitutes one of the world’s prime ecosystems services, and can provide long-term and broad-scale suppression of invasive pests, weeds and pathogens in both natural and agricultural environments. Following (very few) widely-documented historic cases that led to sizeable environmental up-sets, the discipline of insect biological...
Biological control constitutes one of the world’s prime ecosystems services, and can provide long-term and broad-scale suppression of invasive pests, weeds and pathogens in both natural and agricultural environments. Following (very few) widely-documented historic cases that led to sizeable environmental up-sets, the discipline of insect biological...
Powelliphanta is a genus of large land snails endemic to New Zealand. The twelve recognised species and numerous sub-species in that genus are known for their bright and colourful shells as well as their carnivorous habits. Although they are found in a variety of habitat types, several species and sub-species are in danger of extinction. In 2006, a...
The human population is predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050. To achieve food security for this growing population, agricultural intensification is occurring, with increasing use of pesticides to reach the necessary yields. However, there is strong evidence that suggests pesticides cannot provide the agro-ecosystem growth and stability needed for t...
Although global policies to reduce poverty, ensure food security, and improve environmental protection are in place, a new paradigm shift is required to fast-track sustainable development. This requires a new vision in global efforts and contributions by all sectors of the global economy, including agriculture. The agricultural sector supports 45 p...
Rapid Biocontrol Evolution in New Zealand’s Species-sparse Pasturelands
S.L. Goldson1,2, F. Tomasetto1, J.M.E. Jacobs1,2, B.I.P. Barratt3,
S.D. Wratten2, R.M. Emberson4 and J. Tylianakis5,6
1AgResearch Lincoln, Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND, stephen.goldson@agresearch.co.nz,
2Bio-Protection Research Centre, Lincoln University, Lincoln, NEW ZEALAND,
s...
The wheat bug, Nysius huttoni L. is an endemic New Zealand pest. The seedlings of forage brassicas are highly susceptible to direct feeding damage by this insect, and this can reduce plant establishment. Prophylactic use of pesticides is the usual practice for N. huttoni management. These practices have been linked to environmental pollution, biodi...
The lack of understanding of complex food-web interactions has been a major gap in the history of biological control. In particular, a better understanding of the functioning of pest food-webs and how they vary between native and invaded geographical ranges is of prime interest for biological control research and associated integrated pest manageme...
This proceedings contains papers dealing with issues affecting biological control, particularly pertaining to the use of parasitoids and predators as biological control agents. This includes all approaches to biological control: conservation, augmentation, and importation of natural enemy species for the control of arthropod targets, as well as oth...
Global concern about external costs of pesticides (environment and human health) has promoted the development of new strategies for pest control in agro-ecosystems. In this sense, mineral-based dust and optical barriers have been used against agricultural pests in a variety of crops worldwide as alternatives to orthodox pest control. Recently, muss...
This book contains 33 chapters focusing on taxonomy, population dynamics, biological characteristics, feeding behaviour, crop damage, disease transmission, control, monitoring and forecasting of aphid pests of various crops. The efficacy of various methods (biological, chemical, cultural and host resistance) and their combinations for the control o...
Rearing techniques provide a unique opportunity to study aspects of insect ecology, behaviour and physiology. Both the larval and adult stages in Melolonthinae scarabs have important impacts on crop and pasture yields
worldwide. Rearing techniques for this group of phytophagous beetles usually results in a low survival rate from larva to adult, var...
Specimens of a previously unrecorded collembolan species were found in a field margin of a commercial dairy farm near Christchurch, New Zealand. They were consistently observed apparently feeding on egg batches of the light brown apple moth Epiphyas postvittana, which were being used as bait to assess predation rate by potential biocontrol agents....
Negative ecosystem services, or ecosystem disservices (EDS), are those that have unintentional adverse side effects on ecosystem functions ranging from pest populations and natural enemy communities to water quality and crop pollination, among many others. These disservices usually arise inadvertently from the exploitation of one or more ecosystem...
Nysius huttoni is an endemic New Zealand insect pest. Its feeding can seriously reduce crop establishment in forage brassicas. A series of choice, no-choice and paired-choice tests were conducted in a controlled- temperature room to evaluate the pest’s host preferences on seedlings of eight plant species: Lobularia maritima (alyssum), Triticum aest...
Ecological studies are increasingly moving towards trait-based approaches, as the evidence mounts that functions, as opposed to taxonomy, drive ecosystem service delivery. Among ecosystem services, biological control has been somewhat overlooked in functional ecological studies. This is surprising given that, over recent decades, much of biological...
Background
Melolonthinae beetles, comprising different white grub species, are a globally-distributed pest group. Their larvae feed on roots of several crop and forestry species, and adults can cause severe defoliation. In New Zealand, the endemic scarab pest Costelytra zealandica (White) causes severe defoliation on different horticultural crops,...
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the relationship between adult Co stelytra zealandica sex ratio and days after adults’ flight started in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 2.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the relationship between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and daily adult removal from grape vines at different time periods in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 4A.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the correlation between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and adult abundance in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the mean adult Costelytra zealandica abundance at 5-min time periods after adult flight activity begun in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 5 (dashed line).
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the relationship between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and days after adults’ flight started in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 3.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the correlation between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and adult abundance in the Awatere Valley during the 2014 flight season.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate Tukey’s contrasts between adult Costelytra zealandica abundance and the 5-min time periods after adult flight activity begun in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 5 (dashed line).
Raw dataset used for statistical analyses
All data needed for statistical computations
R code used to perform all the statistical analyses presented in the manuscript
This R code script presents the steps carried out to analyse the data used for this manuscript. For each analysis, individual datasets extracted from the raw data file were created and used as .txt files.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the relationship between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and daily adult removal from grape vines at different time periods in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 4B.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the correlation between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and daily adult removal abundance from grape vines at different time periods in the Awatere Valley during the 2015 flight season.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the relationship between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and days after adults’ flight started in the Awatere Valley during the 2014 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 1.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the correlation between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and adult abundance in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the correlation between adult C ostelytra zealandica sex ratio and daily adult removal abundance from grape vines at different time periods in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season.
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate the mean adult C ostelytra zealandica abundance at 5-min time periods after adult flight activity begun in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 5 (solid line).
Text (.txt) file used for the R code
Data used to calculate Tukey’s contrasts between adult Costelytra zealandica abundance and the 5-min time periods after adult flight activity begun in Blenheim during the 2015 flight season. Data are shown in Fig. 5 (solid line).
Historically, handling insects has usually involved their being killed, but non-lethal approaches are necessary when evaluating the biology of such organisms. Anesthesia has been used as one of these non-lethal approaches. Two common anesthetics used in this way have been carbon dioxide and chilling. These have been used frequently in the literatur...
Historically, handling insects has usually involved their being killed, but non-lethal approaches are necessary when evaluating the biology of such organisms. Anesthesia has been used as one of these non-lethal approaches. Two common anesthetics used in this way have been carbon dioxide and chilling. These have been used frequently in the literatur...
Significance
The need for agricultural production to meet the food demands of a growing human population will require sustainable and acceptable pest management, such as biological control, across 11% (1.5 billion ha) of the globe’s land surface. However, the long-term viability of this ecosystem service can be threatened by the expansion and simpl...
Conservation biological control aims to enhance natural enemy populations in crop habitats, e.g. by providing flowering plants as food resources. Suitable flower species must enhance the survival and fecundity of natural enemies but in addition they also need to be highly attractive and thus frequently visited. To date few examples exist that have...
Non-crop habitat adjacent to crops may be important for enhancing the activity of natural enemies in crops. However, it is not always clear whether natural enemies that are active in non-crop habitats actually contribute to pest suppression in adjacent crop habitats. We hypothesised that parasitic wasps that utilise the same hosts can be segregated...
The effects of the association between grasses and
fungal endophytes on orthopterans are very poorly studied
although they are important grassland pests. Here, the endemic
New Zealand weta, Hemiandrus sp. ‘promontorius’, and
Festulolium loliaceum infected with Epichloe¨ uncinata, were
used to study the effect of endophyte-mediated resistance in
gra...