Intercropping can reduce agricultural pest incidence, and represents an important sustainable alternative to conventional pest control methods. Understanding the ecological mechanisms for intercropping could help optimize its use, particularly in tropical systems which present a large number of intercropping possibilities. Citrus is threatened worldwide by greening disease (huanglongbing, HLB) vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae). Control of HLB and citrus psyllid can be partially achieved through intercropping with guava, Psidium guajava L., but the mechanisms remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that guava olfactory cues affect psyllid behavior by altering the attractiveness of citrus through plant–plant interactions. In choice and no-choice cage experiments, psyllid settlement was reduced on citrus shoots that had been exposed to guava shoot odors for at least 2 h. In Y-tube olfactometer experiments, psyllids oriented to odors of unexposed, compared with guava-exposed, citrus shoots. These behavioral results indicate that a mechanism for the success of guava intercropping for sustainable, ecological disease management may be the indirect effect of guava on citrus attractiveness.
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1 June 2016
Exposure to Guava Affects Citrus Olfactory Cues and Attractiveness to Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae)
Jagadish Chandra Barman,
Stuart A. Campbell,
Xinnian Zeng
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Environmental Entomology
Vol. 45 • No. 3
June 2016
Vol. 45 • No. 3
June 2016
Diaphorina citri
olfactory cue
plant–insect interaction
plant–plant interaction
Psidium guajava