Lacewings in the Crop Environment

INTRODUCTION

The study and use of green lacewings in North America has a long history that includes some of the initial research (1940s–70s) on lacewing augmentation, biology, field ecology, and mass-production techniques. Much of this early work helped develop guidelines for the commercial programmes that emerged in the 1980s. Nevertheless, research on the proper use and efficacy of augmentation programmes with lacewings lagged behind concurrent improvements in mass-production methods for parasitoids and increases in their commercial use, especially in glasshouse systems in Europe. During this past decade, research has once again focused on lacewing field ecology and augmentation and, as a result, there have been substantial advances in the use of Chrysoperla in North American agriculture. The progress includes (1) systematic revisions of green lacewings that make correct identification and evolutionarily based biological comparisons a reality, (2) improvements in the methodology for massproduction, (3) applying information from chemical ecology and seasonality to conserve and manipulate natural populations, and (4) rigorous experimental evaluation of release methodology and lacewing efficacy (see Tauber et al., 2000). In this chapter,we describe the advance from experimental to commercial use of lacewings and highlight three recent studies that improved consumer acceptance of the augmentation or conservation of lacewings by providing efficacy studies and setting commercial release guidelines.

EARLY USE OF LACEWINGS IN NORTH AMERICA

The first field releases of Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens) were made against the obscure mealybug, Pseudococcus viburni (Signoret), infesting California pears treated with DDT to control the codling moth, Cydia pomonella (L.).