ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Female Delayed Mating and Shortened Pairing Duration Reduce the Reproductive Performance of Tea Mosquito Bugs (Helopeltis bradyi)
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Plant Protection, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
A - Research concept and design; B - Collection and/or assembly of data; C - Data analysis and interpretation; D - Writing the article; E - Critical revision of the article; F - Final approval of article
Submission date: 2023-05-18
Acceptance date: 2023-08-23
Online publication date: 2023-08-29
Corresponding author
Alan Soffan
Plant Protection, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Flora, Bulaksumur, 55281, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
HIGHLIGHTS
- Female delayed mating decreased egg numbers, egg viability, and offspring numbers.
- Shortened pairing durations decreased egg viability and total offspring.
- Male delayed mating had no significant effect on reproductive performance.
- Adult longevity was negatively affected by pairing duration
- When males were paired with older females, longevity and reproductive parameters similarly decreased.
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ABSTRACT
Tea mosquito bugs (TMB; Helopeltis bradyi, Hemiptera, Miridae) are a main pest in tea and cacao plantations worldwide. Pheromone-mediated mating disruption (MD) is a promising strategy to manage TMB populations. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the simultaneous effect of TMB female delayed mating (1, 3 and 5 days delayed mating) and pairing duration (1 day, 5 days, and entire lifespan) on several reproductive parameters. Results showed that female delayed mating obviously affected egg number, egg viability, and offspring number, but male delayed mating did not show such effects. Shortened pairing durations had a significant effect on egg viability and offspring number but not on egg number. Increased delayed mating and pairing duration negatively affected adult longevity. In general, we noted that TMB reproductive performance is vulnerable to delayed mating and shortened pairing durations, thus providing essential guidance for the implementation of MD strategies of TMB in the field.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have declared that no conflict of interests exist.