Development of a banker plant system with an indigenous strain of Aphidoletes aphidimyza to control aphids in protected culture in Japan

To establish a banker plant system with an indigenous strain of Aphidoletes aphidimyza to control Aphis gossypii on eggplant in protected culture in Japan, we carried out ecological studies on life history and diapause of this predator using barley seedlings infested with Rhopalosiphum padi. We studied the effect of temperature on development and lifetime fecundity and estimated the intrinsic rates of natural increase of a Japanese strain of A. aphidimyza reared on A. gossypii and R. padi. In addition, we studied the effect of photoperiod and temperature on the induction of diapause in A. aphidimyza in the laboratory, investigated the rate for the induction of diapause under different daylength conditions and estimated the critical photoperiod of diapause. Induction of diapause was completely prohibited at high temperatures and lighting for a short peiod at night.