부산대학교 도서관

The tea mosquito bug, Helopeltis fasciaticollis Poppius, is a polyphagous pest, which causes damage to various crops, leading to economic losses. Field surveys have indicated that common weed species present in tea plantations can be potential hosts. Here to determine whether weeds can be used as alternative hosts of H. fasciaticollis, laboratory studies were conducted to compare the feeding activities of adult H. fasciaticollis females on Ageratum houstonianum Mill., Bidens pilosa L. var. radiata, Mikania micrantha H. B. K., and Paspalum conjugatum Bergius four types of weeds that grow in tea plantations with those on tea plants with or without fresh shoots (Taiwan Tea Experiment Station No. 18, TTES No. 18). The results showed that fresh tea shoots were the most preferred, with the highest relative ratios of feeding spots and areas. However, when the fresh tea shoots were removed, B. pilosa became the most preferred, with the mean relative feeding spot ratio of 59.5%. By contrast, no feeding spots were observed on P. conjugatum in both experiments. The host suitability study showed that H. fasciaticollis could complete its life cycle on the fresh shoots of both B. pilosa and TTES No. 18. Nymph development time, adult longevity, preovipositional period, mean number of eggs oviposited by female adults, and egg hatching rate of H. fasciaticollis on both B. pilosa and TTES No. 18 did not differ significantly. Taken together, B. pilosa can be a host plant of H. fasciaticollis in an indoor environment, and by using B. pilosa as an alternative diet for rearing H. fasciaticollis, weed management or grass cultivation in tea plantations may be studied further.