Skip to main content
Entomology 2021 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
In-Person
In-Person
Livestream
Livestream
On-Demand
On-Demand
Student Competition
Student Competition
Video Chat
Video Chat
Ticketed Event
Ticketed Event
Poster Icons
Student Competition
Student Competition
In-Person
In-Person
Poster
Poster
On-Demand
On-Demand
Back
Video Q&A ViewAttendees 5

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad P-IE: Biocontrol 1 On-Demand Presentations

Aggregation and conspecific attraction of the Brazilian peppertree thrips, Pseudophilothrips ichini, an approved biological control agent for Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia

On-Demand
Student Competition On-Demand
Adults and larvae of the biological control agent Brazilian peppertree thrips, Pseudophilothrips ichini, form aggregations. An understanding of how and at what spatial and temporal scales insects form groups is important to understanding many insect behaviors. Aggregations can influence a myriad of insect behaviors, including feeding, oviposition, and dispersal. In a greenhouse experiment, I demonstrated that P. ichini adults were attracted to host plants which were infested with P. ichini larvae compared to host plants that were uninfested. Conspecific attraction may be a mechanism by which P. ichini forms aggregations. In the conspecific attraction study, adult P. ichini were more attracted to plants with P. ichini larvae than to uninfested plants but produced similar numbers of offspring on both infested and uninfested plants. However, when exposed to odors from either infested or uninfested plants, adult P. ichini did not show a preference for either odor. This suggested that adult P. ichini may rely on visual or tactile cues combined with olfaction to identify host plants with conspecifics present.