Effectiveness of the Brown Lacewing, Banks as a Biological Control Agent of the Asian Citrus Psyllid Kuwayama.

The Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) Kuwayama is an economically important pest of citrus because it vectors the causal pathogens of huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease. Biological control is an important component of citrus pest management but requires consistent strengthening of its impact on pest complex. The brown lacewing Banks is a known predator of several insect pests from Asia, Europe, and America. However, there is not much information about its effectiveness against . We evaluated against the and frozen eggs of the Mediterranean flour moth , the latter is a common diet used for rearing predators in laboratories. Adult successfully fed on eggs and nymphs under both light and dark conditions. was also suitable for the development and reproduction of except for slightly prolonged larval development compared with diet. The egg hatch from the total number of eggs laid on and diets averaged 65% and 52%, respectively. Females laid 64% eggs on dimpled white paper compared to 36% combined on plain paper and leaves of citrus, orange jasmine, eggplant and cantaloupe. released at densities of 2-6 adults against eggs and nymphs of on infested orange jasmine plants in the cages provided a reduction of 43-81% in the number of provided eggs or nymphs. In the field tests on infested citrus trees, reduction averaged 35% in five cohorts in which developing colonies of 28-32 nymphs were provided to one per cage. Findings suggest the significant potential of as a predator of and to contribute to reducing huanglongbing.