Lab Nacional de Computação Científica, Av. Getúlio Vargas, 333 - Quitandinha, Petrópolis, RJ, 25651-070, Brasil.
Neotrop Entomol. 2020 Dec;49(6):874-881. doi: 10.1007/s13744-020-00820-8. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
This work puts forward a dynamical population model to qualitatively reproduce the phenomena of apparent competition and apparent mutualism found in an experiment with two arthropods being attacked by a predator in a context of pest biological control in greenhouse crops. The two agricultural pests consist of one species of thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande 1895)) and one species of whiteflies (Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood, 1956), and the shared predator is a predatory mite (Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Herriot, 1962). The predatory mite is the biocontrol agent employed in order to achieve the biological control. The proposed model successfully reproduces this density mediated indirect interactions between pests when their carrying capacities are increased. Moreover, the pests' final population levels may depend on their initial densities and those of their predator. With these results, the proposed model may have the potential to assess whether these indirect pest interactions disrupt or enhance biological control. Additionally, it can also be used as an ancillary tool to theoretically assess the effects of pest biocontrol strategies in the referred experimental setup.
这项工作提出了一个动力人口模型，定性地再现了在温室作物害虫生物防治背景下，两种节肢动物被捕食者攻击的实验中发现的明显竞争和明显互利现象。这两种农业害虫包括一种蓟马（Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande 1895)）和一种粉虱（Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood, 1956），共同的捕食者是一种捕食螨（Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Herriot, 1962）。捕食螨是为实现生物防治而采用的生物防治剂。当猎物的承载能力增加时，所提出的模型成功地再现了这种密度介导的间接相互作用。此外，害虫的最终种群水平可能取决于它们的初始密度及其捕食者的密度。有了这些结果，所提出的模型可能有潜力评估这些间接害虫相互作用是否破坏或增强生物防治。此外，它还可以作为一种辅助工具，从理论上评估在上述实验设置中害虫生物防治策略的效果。
