Mint companion plants enhance the attraction of the generalist predator Nesidiocoris tenuis according to its experiences of conspecific mint volatiles.

ABSTRACT: Mint plants enable improvement of pest management by attracting herbivore enemies to constitutively released mint volatiles. The generalist predator Nesidiocoris tenuis is used worldwide to control agricultural pests, but little is known about whether mint can serve as a companion plant that attracts this predator. To examine this, olfactory responses of N. tenuis were assessed using apple mint, candy mint, and spearmint as odor sources. Of the volatiles released by these mint species, candy mint volatiles alone were more attractive than those from undamaged eggplant, and were as attractive as volatiles from eggplant damaged with Spodoptera litura larvae. However, no prominent preference for particular volatile(s) among the mint volatiles was shown by O. strigicollis. When N. tenuis had be

SUBMITTER: Rim H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7005881 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature