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Bagworms (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) are one of the dominant defoliator pests in oil palm plantations. They have also been reported as pests on other crops and on ornamental trees. A generalist predatory bug, Sycanus dichotomus Stal. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), is one of the alternative means to manage the pest naturally. In this study, the suitability o...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... early live larvae of T. molitor were used as the food source for S. dichotomus. The parent population of the rice moth, C. cephalonica, (Figure 2) was obtained from Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor. A colony of C. cephalonica was reared on corn and rice in a plastic rearing container (measuring 25 cm x 35 cm x 12 cm). ...
Citations
... (Sahid & Natawigena, 2018;Poopat & Maneerat, 2021;Pratama, 2021), C. picticeps (Jamian et al., 2017), P. melanoleucus (Khoo et al., 1999;Azlina & Tey, 2011), and E. furcellata (Rustam & Gani, 2019). Notably, the assassin bug, S. dichotomus, which is recognised as one of the key predators for bagworms and nettle caterpillars in Peninsular Malaysia oil palm plantations, was not recorded in this study (Jamian et al., 2017;Ahmad et al., 2020). Another study discovered that hemipteran predators were responsible for the highest rate of bagworm mortality (46%) within the plantation, surpassing other natural enemies (Cheong et al., 2010). ...
Hemipteran predator species from the families Reduviidae and Pentatomidae are a group of insects that play a crucial role as natural enemies of leaf-eating pests in oil palm plantations by maintaining the population of pests below the economic threshold. The promotion of natural enemies can be an effective and sustainable approach to pest management. A census was conducted between June and August 2022 in nine plantations in Beluran district, Sabah to compare the species composition between recent leaf-eating pest in outbreaks and non-outbreak estates using sweep nets and active visual surveys. A total of 355 individuals from seven species of two different families were recorded, with Reduviidae being the most abundant family: Sycanus annulicornis, S. affinis, Cosmolestes picticeps, Velinus nigrigenu, Campsolomus nr. sp. (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), Platynopus melanoleucus and Eocanthecona furcellata (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). The diversity indices of the predatory insects were significantly higher (p<0.01) in non-outbreak estates (H' = 1.682, 1-D = 0.763) compared to post-outbreak estates (H' = 1.344, 1-D = 0.683), which recorded a higher dominance value (D = 0.32) of a single species, leading to a decrease in the diversity indices. The Pentatomidae family was only found at non-outbreak estates, while the other Reduviidae species were highly abundant and distributed throughout all study locations. The S. annulicornis and S. affinis were only found on beneficial plants, while E. furcellata and P. melanoleucus were highly abundant within the oil palm planting area. These findings provide insights into the importance of maintaining the beneficial plant and reducing the impact of pest outbreaks on the diversity and abundance of predatory insects in oil palm plantations.
