Afila leaf and reduced stipule are morphological alterations present in various commercial pea cultivars. Agronomic reasons have dictated the use of these cultivars and little is known about advantages they may confer from the perspective of aphid biological control. In this study, the efficacy of coccinellid and chrysopid larvae was evaluated on four pea near-isolines which exhibited normal leaves and stipules, afila leaves only, reduced stipules only, and both afila leaves and reduced stipules. The predators displayed diverging responses to the plant morphological alterations with the coccinellid larvae benefitting most from the changes.
Species 1: Homoptera Aphididae Acyrthosiphon pisum (pea aphid)
Species 2: Coleoptera Coccinellidae Coccinella septempunctata (sevenspotted lady beetle)
Species 3: Neuroptera Chrysopidae Chrysoperla rufilabris
Keywords: plant morphology, tritrophic interactions
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