Attractiveness of potentially beneficial flowering plants to natural enemies

Attractiveness of Potentially Beneficial Flowering Plants to Natural Enemies

El-Said. M. El-Nabawy^1,2, Katsuo Tsuda¹ and Yositaka Sakamaki¹

1:  Entomological Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, the United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Kagoshima University, 1-21-24 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065 Japan.

2:  Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafr Elsheikh University, Egypt.

ABSTRACT

The attractiveness of potentially beneficial flowering plants to spiders and other insect natural enemies was investigated in an agricultural field cultivated organically at Kiire, Kagoshima City, Japan, in 2013 and 2014. In 2013, five flowering plant species, Salvia farinacea Benth. (mealy cup sage), Mentha spicata L. (spearmint), Foeniculum vulgare Mill. (fennel), Fagopyrum esculentum Moench (buckwheat), and Anethum graveolens L. (dill) were compared for their attractiveness to true spiders using a direct count method. S. farinacea attracted significant numbers of crab spiders (Thomisidae), and M. spicata attracted tangle-web spiders (Theridiidae), while the other flowering plants attracted fewer numbers of these spiders. In 2014, another set of five flowering plant species, Salvia farinacea Benth., Matricaria recutita L. (chamomile), Achillea millefolium L. (yarrow) , Petunia atkinsiana D. Don ex Loudon (petunia), and Alyssum maritimum (L.) Desv. (sweet alyssum) were compared for their attractiveness to natural enemies; crab spiders (Thomisidae), ichneumon wasps (Ichneumonoidea), chalcid wasps (Chalcidoidea), predatory bugs (Anthocoridae), and hoverflies (Syrphidae). Samples were collected weekly from each plant species using sweeping net. Crab spiders and predatory bugs clearly preferred S. farinacea compared than the other plants in this study, whereas chalcid wasps preferred S. farinacea and A. Millefolium. It was concluded that S. farinacea is the superior insectary plant in the present study, as it attracted the highest numbers of natural enemies, including crab spiders, predatory bugs, and chalcid wasps. Moreover, to the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the attractiveness of S. farinacea and M. spicata to thomisid and theridiid spiders in an agricultural field.