Toxicity of insecticides to cheilomenes sexmaculata fabricius (coleoptera:coccinellidae)

Abstract

Biocontrol represents a sustainable and economically feasible way of pest management. However, under high herbivore pressure, bioagents alone are often unable to provide quick reduction of pest population, calling for insecticide based interventions. Chemical control, though designed to cause rapid mortality of target pests also adversely impact the natural enemies, leading to reduction in their growth, survival and reproduction. Hence it becomes imperative to evaluate the effects of insecticides on efficient natural biocontrol agents, to select safe insecticides and use them harmoniously. The six spotted zigzag lady beetle, Cheilomenes sexmaculata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), is an efficient natural enemy of aphid species in various crops due to its voracious feeding habit and density responsiveness. It is very common in cowpea and plays a major regulatory role against the cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora. However, biocontrol by C. sexmaculata is often destabilized by the indiscriminate use of insecticides. Selection of insecticides safe to C. sexmaculata requires knowledge on direct and indirect effects of insecticides on the growth and development of the predator. Hence five insecticides and a botanical that are recommended in cowpea for pest management were evaluated for their toxicity to C. sexmaculata in the laboratory as well as their impact on field efficacy of the predator. Assessment of direct lethal impact, by exposing the life stages of the predator to field doses of insecticides, revealed the highly toxic nature of dimethoate and thiamethoxam to grub, pupa and adult stages of C. sexmaculata, leading to 100.00 per cent mortality. Exposure to dimethoate caused complete mortality of eggs while thiamethoxam was harmless to eggs with only 22.50 per cent mortality. Neem oil emulsion (3%) was found harmful to the non-feeding egg and pupal stages by completely inhibiting hatching and adult eclosion. In grub and adult stage, neem oil caused a mortality of 32.5 and 50 per cent respectively. Flubendiamide and spinosad were relatively harmless to all stages, inducing 22.50 and 15.00 per cent mortality in eggs, less than 10 per cent mortality to grubs and pupae, and 12.5 per cent mortality to adults of C. sexmaculata. Exposure of first instar grubs to sub lethal doses of insecticides also revealed adverse effects on development and reproduction of the predator. While exposure todimethoate led to complete mortality of grubs, exposure to thiamethoxam and neem oil prolonged the development period by two days and reduced the oviposition period by eight and five days, respectively. Adult longevity also was reduced by 4-8 days, after exposure to these insecticides. The fecundity was also reduced to 1637.13±92.10 and 1727.13±51.75 eggs/female respectively in thiamethoxam and neem oil as compared to 2151.88±27.31 in control. In both thiamethoxam and neem oil treatments, fertility was reduced by 15.00 per cent of 1868±26.50 offsprings/female recorded in control. Flubendiamide had no influence on the development period but reduced the oviposition period by seven days and male and female longevity by four and eight days respectively. There was a reduction in fecundity and fertility by 27.00 and 14.00 per cent respectively as well. Spinosad had no significant influence on developmental period of immatures but reduced the fecundity to 1917.00±89.43 eggs/female. Evaluation of insecticides in cowpea field demonstrated the effectiveness of dimethoate and thiamethoxam in managing aphids with drastic reduction in population till 15 th day with 3.20 and 1.80 aphids/10cm twig compared to 33.88 aphids in control 15 days after spray. The plots treated with flubendiamide, neem oil emulsion and spinosad recorded 17.90, 17.35 and 17.00 aphids/10cm twig respectively at 15 DAS and were inferior to dimethoate and thiamethoxam in aphid management. However, there was a gradual increase in the predator population after third day of spray from 1.05, 1.25 and 1.20 numbers/plant to 1.90, 2.00 and 1.90 numbers/plant at 15 DAS in flubendiamide, neem oil emulsion and spinosad treatments respectively compared to control (1.55 and 2.15 numbers/plant). This indicates the safety of these insecticides to predator in field. Whereas, no predator population was observed in dimethoate and thiamethoxam treatments till 15 DAS. The study provides a measure of safety of insecticides in an IPM programme with C. sexmaculata, a promising bioagent against the key pest, A. craccivora in cowpea. The results point out the deleterious effect of dimethoate and thiamethoxam to C. sexmaculata. Botanical, neem oil is harmless to grubs but harmful to other life stages of the predator and also adversely affects growth and reproduction at sublethal doses. Flubendiamide, though harmless at field doses, alters the reproductive parameters at sublethal level. Spinosad, with only minimal reduction in fecundity, is harmless to C. sexmaculata.