Main Article Content

Authors

 The aim of this research was to construct the life table of the predator Delphastus pusillus (Le Conte) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), feeding on its prey, the greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). A group of 30 adults of known age were taken from among individuals reared in a colony maintained in the laboratory, and put into Petri dishes. Based on cohorts of 493 and 682 eggs of the predator, observations were made on the number of individuals alive at the beginning of each development stage, individuals that died in each stage, duration of each stage, female longevity, eggs laid per female, period of oviposition and sex ratio. The information collected was used to calculate the parameters of finite growth rate (  ), intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm), net reproductive rate (Ro), generation time (Tg), time to population doubling (Dt), time of female fecundity, oviposition rate, and the oviposition and survival curves of the predator. There was lower survival of D. pusillus in the early developmental stages, particularly the egg and larva1 stages. The estimated parameters obtained from the first and sixth generations were: Ro = 5.51 and 3.17, respectively, Dt = 23.0 and 20.5,  Lamda = 1.03 for both generations and rm = 0.03 for both generations. It is suggested that first generation female predators make a greater contribution to female daughters compared to the contribution made by females of the sixth generation maintained in laboratory.

GARCÍA-GONZÁLEZ, J., BENÍTEZ-S., ÉDGAR R., & LÓPEZ-ÁVILA, A. (2005). Life table of Delphastus pusillus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on the whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). Revista Colombiana De Entomología, 31(2), 155–160. https://doi.org/10.25100/socolen.v31i2.9438

BELLOWS JR TS, VAN DRISCHE RG, ELKINTON JS 1992. Life-Table construction and analysis in the evaluation of natural enemies. Annual Review of Entomology. 37: 587-614.

COCUZZA GE; DE CLERQ P; LIZZIO S; VAN DE VIERE M; TIRRY L; DEGHEELE D; VACANTE V. 1997. Life tables and predation activity of Orius laevigatus and O. albidipennis at three constant temperatures. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 85: 189-197.

COHEN C.A.; NORDLUND D; SMITH R. 1999. Mass rearing of entomophagous insects and predaceous mites: are the bottlenecks biological, engineering, economic, or cultural? Biocontrol, news and information. 20 (3): 85-90.

DE CLERCQ P; VANDEWALLE M-;, L. TIRRY. 1998. Impact of inbreeding on performance of the predator Podisus maculiventris. Biocontrol. Netherlands. 43, 299-310.

GERLING D. 2000. Whiteflies revisited. XXI international congress of entomology. Abstract book. Brazil. August 20 -26. pp. 64-67.

HASSELL M.P. 1980. The Dynamics of Competition and Predation. Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology. Imperial College of Science and Technology. Study in Biology No. 72, 68.

HEINZ K.; BRAZZLE J.; PICKETT CH.; NATWICK E.; NELSON J.; PARRELLA M. 1994. Predatory Beetle may suppress silverleaf whitefly. California Agriculture. (United States) 48 (2): 35-41.

JERVIS M. A.; COPLAND M. J. 1996. The life cycle. Insect Natural enemies. Practical approaches to their study. ED. Chapman and Hall, 63-160.

LÓPEZ-ÁVILA A.; CARDONA MEJÍA C.; GARCÍA GONZÁLEZ J.; RENDÓN F.; HERNÁNDEZ P. 2001. Reconocimiento e identificación de enemigos naturales de moscas blancas (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) en Colombia y Ecuador. Revista Colombiana de Entomología. 27(3-4): 137-141.

LÓPEZ S.N.; BOTTO N.E. 1997. Biology of South American population of Eretmocerus sp. (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) attacking the greenhouse withefly. Biological control. 9 (1): 1-5.

MAIA A.; LUIZ A.; CLAYTON C. 2000. Statistical inference on associated fertility table parameters using Jackknife technique: computational aspects. Journal of Economic Entomology. 93 (2): 511-518.

NEUBERT M.; CASWELL H. 2000. Demography and dispersal: Calculation and sensitivity analysis of invasion speed for structured populations. Ecology 8 (16): 1613-1628.

QUINTERO C.; RENDÓN F.; GARCÍA J.; CARDONA C.; LÓPEZ-ÁVILA A.; HERNÁNDEZ P. 1999 Especies y biotipos de moscas blancas (Homoptera:Aleyrodidae) en cultivos semestrales de Colombia y Ecuador. Revista Colombiana de Entomología. 27 (1-2): 27-32.

RABINOVICH J. E. 1980. Introducción a la ecología de poblaciones animales. Capítulo 5. Editorial CECSA. Caracas (Venezuela), 313.

RENDÓN F.; GARCÍA J.; VALERAZO O.; CARDONA C.; LÓPEZ-ÁVILA A.; BUENO J.; RAMÍREZ J. 1999. La problemática de las moscas blancas (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) en cultivos anuales en el trópico alto, valles interandinos y costas de Colombia y Ecuador: 1. Caracterización y diagnóstico general. Resúmenes XXVI Congreso de la Sociedad Colombiana de Entomología. Santa fe de Bogotá (Colombia), 78.

RODRÍGUEZ DEL BOSQUE, L. 1994. Teorías y bases ecológicas del control biológico. Memorias V curso de control biológico. Instituto tecnológico agropecuario Oaxaca. México, 6-15.

SAS INSTITUTE 1999. Sas Language. Reference. Versión 8. Sas institute. Cary NC

SOUTHWOOD T.R. 1978. Ecological Methods with particular reference to the study of insect population. Ed. Chapman and Hall. London.