The spined soldier bug, Podisus maculiventris, is a generalist predator of over 75 insect prey species, some of which are important pests. Our objective is to determine fecundity and physiological measurements such as lipids and proteins of P. maculiventris provided different prey species. The latter were the following: beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua), fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni), greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella), and yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor). A series of experiments were conducted whereby predators were sacrificed at 7, 15, 22 and 30 days after the start of the experiment to measure the selected traits at different ages of the predator. Preliminary results indicated that egg production was higher in predators that were fed beet armyworm, fall armyworm, cabbage looper and greater wax moth compared to those that were fed yellow mealworm.
Species 1: Heteroptera Pentatomidae Podisus maculiventris (spined soldier bug)
Species 2: Lepidoptera Noctuidae Spodoptera exigua (beet armyworm)
Species 3: Lepidoptera Noctuidae Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm)
Keywords: fecundity, generalist predator
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