Macaranga tanarius, a remarkable source of anthocorids for greenhouse and tropical crops

From Dec. 2009 – Nov. 2011, blooming plants in gardens and along the roadsides on the Big Island of Hawaii were sampled for thrips and anthocorid predators of thrips.  Four hundred and twenty plant samples were collected representing 56 species of plants in 25 families. Adult thrips were collected on 38 plant species. Twenty-nine of these also had larval thrips indicating that the plant was a breeding host for that species of thrips. Anthocoridae were collected on 21 different plant species in 9 plant families with 10 species recorded as breeding hosts.  Five species of plants were identified as potential banker plants for Anthocoridae based on the presence of both adults and nymphs of 5 species:  Orius persequens (White), Orius tristicolor (White), Paratriphleps laeviuscula Champion, Montandoniola confusa Streito & Matocq and Blaptostethus pallescens Poppius. Macaranga tanarius (L.) Müll. Arg., a tree from SE Asia which colonizes disturbed mesic and wet areas in East Hawaii, was found to be the best host plant for anthocorids, as judged by species diversity and numbers of anthocorid nymphs and adults present in samples. M. tanarius has tremendous potential as a banker plant for many crops in Hawaii and throughout the world by virtue of its unique co-evolved ability to support anthocorid predators, its fast growth habit and ease of cultivation, and its status as a tree which is seldom, if ever, colonized by pest species.