Toxicity of three aphicides to the generalist predators Chrysoperla carnea (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) and Orius insidiosus (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae).

Recent widespread infestations of the invasive sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari (Zehntner) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), in sorghum fields in the southern USA have created demand for insecticides that will provide effective control of sugarcane aphid, while conserving those beneficial species that contribute to biological control of the pest. We tested the susceptibility of both adult and immature stages of two aphid predators, the green lacewing, Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), and the insidious flower bug, Orius insidiosus (Say) (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), to three aphicides, flonicamid, sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone. Flonicamid was innocuous to both species regardless of life stage or route of exposure. Lacewing adults were more susceptible to sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone than were larvae, and had higher mortality when fed contaminated honey solution than when contacting residues on an inert surface. When laid in sunflower stems treated with these two materials, eggs of O. insidiosus hatched successfully, but nymphs experienced significant mortality when exposed to treated stems, likely due to phytophagous behavior that resulted in some insecticide ingestion. Despite these impacts, we conclude that both sulfoxaflor and flupyradifurone are likely to be relatively innocuous in comparison to more broad-spectrum insecticides and are thus potentially compatible with biological control and overall management of M. sacchari in grain sorghum.