Evaluating a new aphid biocontrol agent: The role of aphid density in modulating oviposition behaviour in the American hoverfly, <i>Eupeodes americanus</i>, and the aphid midge, <i>Aphidoletes aphidimyza</i>
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Hoverfly larvae are voracious predators of aphids but have limited dispersal capacity, so their survival depends critically on female selection of oviposition sites. For aphid control purposes, the ability of females to find small aphid colonies is especially valuable. In this study, the oviposition strategy and minimum aphid density triggering the oviposition of the American hoverfly, Eupeodes americanus (Wiedemann, 1830) (Diptera: Syrphidae), was compared with that of the aphid midge, Aphidoletes aphidimyza (Rondani, 1847) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a predator commercially available in Canada as a reference. Oviposition behaviour was evaluated at densities of 0, 2, 5, 10, and 50 aphids per plant. This was tested on two economically significant plant/aphid systems: pepper plants infested by the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer 1776) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and cucumber plants infested with the melon aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover 1877. Results showed that both predators lay their eggs in proportion to the size of the colony of aphids. Oviposition by E. americanus required a minimum density of 5 aphids on cucumber but only 2 on pepper, whereas for A. aphidimyza, it was also 5 aphids on cucumber, but 10 on pepper. The hoverfly laid more than twice as many eggs as A. aphidimyza on pepper. It also laid more eggs on pepper than on cucumber and the pattern is the opposite for A. aphidimyza. Therefore, the identity of the aphid‐host plant complex appears to modulate the oviposition of these predators. This study demonstrates the ability of E. americanus to respond to lower densities of aphids than A. aphidimyza early in the infestation on sweet pepper plants and shows that its oviposition rate is at least as effective as A. aphidimyza on cucumber. Consequently, these attributes of its oviposition behaviour indicate that E. americanus has great potential for use as an aphid biocontrol agent in these crops.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".