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| Belz, Elodie; Kölliker, Mathias; Balmer, Oliver. |
| In agricultural landscapes, the lack of floral nectar can be a major difficulty for nectar feeding parasitoids. This problem can be reduced by the addition of suitable wildflowers. To date, flowers have mainly been studied in terms of effects on parasitoid fitness, not taking into account the essential role of flower attractiveness for foraging parasitoids. This study experimentally tested the olfactory attractiveness of five wildflowers (bishop’s weed, cornflower, buckwheat, candytuft, and oregano) to the parasitoid Microplitis mediator (Haliday) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). We conducted choice experiments in a Y-tube olfactometer to test the attractiveness of flowers against air, and relative attractiveness in paired choice tests. Our results showed that... |
| Tipo: Journal paper |
Palavras-chave: Biodiversity and ecosystem services Crop health; Quality; Protection. |
| Ano: 2013 |
URL: http://orgprints.org/25007/1/Belz-etal-2013-BioControl-58-p163-173.pdf |
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| Balmer, Oliver; Géneau, Céline E.; Belz, Elodie; Weishaupt, Bettina; Förderer, Gerda; Moos, Sebastian; Ditner, Nadine; Juric, Ivan; Luka, Henryk. |
| Monocultures typical of intensive agriculture offer ideal conditions to specialized herbivores while depriving their natural enemies of habitat and nutritional resources. The resulting release of herbivores from both bottom-up and top-down control causes pest outbreaks in economically important crops. Boosting locally occurring natural enemy populations through species-specific habitat management to restore natural herbivore control has been much advocated but remains rarely tested in the field. Here, we investigated whether adding specifically selected flowering plants to monocultures increases parasitation rates of herbivores and crop yield. We performed replicated field experiments in 2 years and found that adding cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) into... |
| Tipo: Journal paper |
Palavras-chave: Vegetables Biodiversity and ecosystem services Crop health; Quality; Protection. |
| Ano: 2014 |
URL: http://orgprints.org/36391/1/Balmer_etal_2014_BiolControl_Vol76_p19-27.pdf |
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