595 © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. Biological and Microbial Control Demography and Mass-Rearing Harmonia dimidiata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Using Aphis gossypii (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and Eggs of Bactrocera dorsalis (Diptera: Tephritidae) Jih-Zu Yu, 1 Bing Huei Chen, 2 Ali Güncan, 3 Remzi Atlıhan, 4 Ayhan Gökçe, 5 Cecil L. Smith, 6 Ebru Gümüş, 7 and Hsin Chi 5,8 1 Applied Zoology Division, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Wufeng, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China, 2 Counsel of Agriculture, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, 3 Ordu University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, 52200, Ordu, Turkey, 4 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Yüzüncu Yıl, 65080 Van, Turkey, 5 Department of Plant Production and Technologies, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Turkey, 6 Georgia Museum of Natural History, University of Georgia Athens, GA, 7 Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey, Hazelnut Research Institute, Teyyaredüzü Mah. Atatürk Bulvarı, PK:46, 28200, Giresun, Turkey, and 8 Corresponding author, e-mail: hsinchi@dragon.nchu.edu.tw Subject Editor: John Trumble Received 21 December 2017; Editorial decision 21 January 2018 Abstract We compared rearing Harmonia dimidiata (F.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on four combinations of Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and eggs of Bactrocera dorsalis Hendel (Diptera: Tephritidae), using the age-stage, two-sex life table. The four combinations were: both larvae and adults were reared on aphids; larvae were reared on aphids and adults were reared on fresh fruit fy eggs; larvae were reared on lyophilized fruit fy eggs and adults were reared on aphids; and larvae were reared on lyophilized eggs and adults were reared on fresh eggs. The highest intrinsic rate of increase (r = 0.1125 d −1 ) and net reproductive rate (R 0  = 260.7 offspring) were observed when both larval and adult stages of H. dimidiata were reared on A. gossypii. When B. dorsalis eggs were used as rearing media for larvae, adults, or both, the values of r and R 0 were signifcantly decreased. The lowest values (r = 0.0615 d −1 and R 0  = 38.6 offspring) were observed when both larvae and adults were reared entirely on B. dorsalis eggs. Despite the lower r and R 0 values, our results showed that B. dorsalis eggs could be considered as an adequate, less expensive alternative diet for rearing H. dimidiata because of the time and labor savings resulting from the ease of preparation and the ability to store the eggs for timely usage. The mass-rearing analysis showed that the most economical rearing system was to rear larvae on A. gossypii and adults on B. dorsalis eggs. Key words: life table, insect diet, Harmonia dimidiata, Bactrocera dorsalis, Aphis gossypii The aphidophagous lady beetle, Harmonia dimidiata (F.) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is a multivoltine predator of many aphid species, including numerous economically important pests such as Aphis gos- sypii Glover, Myzus persicae Sulzer, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch), Greenidea formosana (Maki), Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach), Neophyllaphis podocarpi Takahashi (Tao 1990). The beetles have been used in biological control programs in the past, including being introduced from China into Far Eastern Russia to con- trol A. gossypii in greenhouses (Kuznetsov and Pang 2002). It has long been known that it is crucial to provide suffcient numbers of predators in a timely manner to satisfy the quanti- ties needed during feld releases, in order to succeed in classic and augmentative biological control programs (King et al. 1985). Because living aphids are generally supplied as prey during mass rearing of aphidophagous lady beetles, a tri-trophic system, including predator, prey and host plants must be maintained. Because H. dimidiata is a voracious predator and can easily consume as many as 200 A. gos- sypii daily (Yu et al. 2013), the labor, space, time, and cost demands may become excessive in attempting to maintain such a tri-trophic system. Consequently, the high market price and unstable supply available for biological control programs may discourage growers from considering biological controls as an alternative to traditional chemical controls. Only after this and similar problems are reme- died will biological control program become widely acceptable to Journal of Economic Entomology, 111(2), 2018, 595–602 doi: 10.1093/jee/toy031 Advance Access Publication Date: 27 February 2018 Research Article Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jee/article/111/2/595/4912445 by guest on 16 December 2021