Age-stage two-sex life table and predation capacity of Nesidiocoris tenuis feeding on Trialeurodes vaporariorum on three important greenhouse crops

The predatory bug Nesidiocoris tenuis Reuter is one of the important natural enemies of the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood. In this research, age-stage two-sex life table and predation rate of this predator by feeding on 2nd instar nymphs of T. vaporariorum were studied at 25±2 oC, 65±10% RH and a photoperiod of 16:8 h (L:D) on eggplant, cucumber and tomato plants. The means and SEs were estimated using 100,000 Bootstrap replications. Pre-adult developmental time of the predator on eggplant, cucumber and tomato were 23.94±0.12, 22.94±0.27 and 22.43±0.21days; female longevity were 21.2±0.49, 25±0.24 and 24.2±0.78 days, male longevity were 26.16±1.91, 28.92±1.46 and 29.25±1.43 days, and fecundity of the predator were estimated to be 84.36±3.17, 114.44±2.32 and 122.73±4.92 eggs, respectively. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) and net reproduction rate (R0) of the predator were 0.102±0.0052, 0.111±0.0054 and 0.117±0.0046 (d-1), and 30.13±4.94, 40.87±6.6 and 52.6±7.53 (eggs), respectively. The highest net predation rate (C0) of the predator was obtained on tomato (1803.59±135.9 whitefly nymphs/ predator) which was significantly higher than those estimated on two other host plants (1337.17±114.27 on cucumber and 1163.27±105.81 on eggplant). Difference in transformation rate from prey population to predator offspring (Qp) were not significant between three host plants and were estimated to be 34.29±3.12, 32.72±3.97 and 38.61±4.41 for tomato, cucumber and eggplant, respectively. Overall, in the current study, compared with two other host plants, tomato was more appropriate plant for developing and predatory activity of this predator.