Within agricultural systems there are multiple abiotic and biotic mortality forces acting on pest insect populations. These forces may be naturally-occurring, as in the case indigenous natural enemies, or man-made as exemplified by insecticides or cultural manipulations. Estimating the contribution and effect of each mortality factor may be difficult because of interactions between factors resulting in mortalities that may be either replaceable or indispensable. From the perspective of conservation biological control, estimating mortality caused by extant natural enemies within the context of other mortality agents is important to understanding the base contribution of biological control to pest suppression, and to evaluating the benefits of manipulating the habitat and other system inputs. I will summarize research with whiteflies in cotton in which cohort-based life tables were used to structure, quantify, analyze and interpret the effects of indigenous natural enemies relative to the effects of other simultaneous mortality factors, especially insecticides, acting on pest populations. The results provide a mechanistic understanding of how integration of natural enemies with use of selective insecticides result in the development of an efficient pest management strategy.
Species 1: Homoptera Aleyrodidae Bemisia tabaci (sweetpotato whitefly)
Keywords: arthropod predators, aphelinid parasitoids
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