Diet breadth of the aphid predator Chrysoperla rufilabris (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)

Understanding the feeding habits of natural enemies of crop pests is an important step before applying a biological control strategy. The green lacewing (Chrysoperla rufilabris Burmeister, 1839) is a predator that is known to feed primarily on aphids, which can be found naturally in different kinds of commercial crops. Although C. rufilabris is often described as a generalist, not much is known about its diet breadth. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the diet breadth of C. rufilabris over 17 different species of aphids and to assess the effects of each aphid species on the development of larvae and egg load of adult females. Each aphid species was offered ad libidum to second instar C. rufilabris larvae and the survival, development time, pupal weight and female egg load were recorded.  We also recorded the number of individual aphids consumed for  each species.  Our study demonstrated a strong effect of aphid species on the  fitness of C. rufilabris and also on the number of aphids consumed.  Thus, the diet breadth of C. rufilabris appears to be narrower than previously reported.  This information will be useful for incorporating this predator into biological control programs.