2013 ASHS Annual Conference

The mealy bug, Pseudaulacaspis cockerelli (Cooley) is one of the hardest pests to control. its body is covered with white waxy threads, which often make a chemical pest control useless. The development of new effective native predators against the mealy bugs is of great interest. We found that the lacewing had a potent control efficacy against mealy bugs. The identified DNA sequences indicate that this lacewing species is Chrysoperla nipponensis (Okamoto). It's the same results of morphological classification and unrecorded species in Korea. C. nipponensis go through complete metamorphosis and the developmental time of larva takes 16.8 days(25±2°C, 75±5%, 16L:8D). These larva are particularly effective at controlling mealy bugs and can consume 668.7 mealy bugs in their larvae stages. The functional response of the C. nipponensis feeding on six different densities of the mealy bug was studied under laboratory conditions at 25±2°C, 75±5%, 16L:8D. The rate of increase gradually lessened, resembling a Holling's type III functional response. Daily predation amount of 2nd larva consumed 4.7 Pseudococcus comstocki (Kuwana), 13.3 Myzus persicae (Sulzer), 0.9 Bemisia tabaci (Gonnadius) (25±2°C, 75±5%, 16L:8D). A treatment of C. nipponensis was applied to five flavor berry, Schisandra chinensis Baill fields infested by P. cockerelli. The treatment of biological control agents significantly decreased the fruit damage, which was comparable to the chemical insecticide treatment.