Prey specialization in ladybirds: Iberorhyzobius rondensis, a potential biological control of Matsucoccus feytaudi

• Author(s): Tavares, Catarina de Azevedo
• Date: 2014
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/7829
• Origin: Repositório da UTL
• Subject(s): Coccidophagous; Coccoidea; biocontrol; coccinellid; prey-predator
• Document Type: Doctoral thesis
• Language: English
• Advisor(s): Simões, Manuela Rodrigues Branco; Jactel, Hervé
• Contributor(s): Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

Description

Doutoramento em Engenharia Florestal e dos Recursos Naturais - Instituto Superior de Agronomia

Iberorhyzobius rondensis (Eizaguirre) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) is a recently described species, unique in its genus, endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. The beetle feeds on egg masses of the pine bast scale Matsucoccus feytaudi Ducasse (Hemiptera: Matsucoccidae) and is strongly attracted to the prey’s sexual pheromone. M. feytaudi is endemic to Western Europe and North Africa and invasive in Southeastern Europe. Its sole host is Pinus pinaster. Here we evaluate the potential of I. rondensis as a biological control agent of M. feytaudi. Several characteristics of the beetle were assessed: prey and habitat range, life traits, phenology, phylogeography, phylogeny and predatory efficacy. Our results revealed that I. rondensis is highly specialized, depending on M. feytaudi to complete its development, and it only occurs on P. pinaster trees. Phylogeography matches the one of the prey evidencing a co-evolutionary history. The phylogenetic study validates the genus. A review on the prey specialization of 186 ladybird species was performed. Several traits were found to be related with prey specialization, mainly habitat specialization and host specialization of the prey. I. rondensis emerges as a rare case of prey specialization among ladybirds. All results support I. rondensis as an appropriate candidate for biological control of M. feytaudi.