Presence of Bactericera cockerelli facilitates aphid survival on tomato

Intraguild interactions between phloem-feeding insects have seldom been studied. The interaction between the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and the potato/tomato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera: Triozidae), was recently investigated on tomato, Solanum lycopersicum cv. Moneymaker. The aphid clone used for this work is not adapted to tomato, yet was found to persist on tomato plants in the presence of potato/tomato psyllids. The objective of this study was to shed light on the mechanisms of this facilitation. Our results showed that the aphids in association with psyllids did not become adapted to tomato. Moreover, no effect of plant age or psyllid life stage on aphid survival was discovered, but psyllid density may be important for aphid survival.