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Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Student MUVE and PBT: Vector Biology, Physiology, and Toxicology On-Demand Presentations

Diaphorina citri and its natural enemies in different high-density citrus plantings

On-Demand

Presenting Author(s)

Jean-Yves Berisse

Graduate Student
University of Florida
Immokalee, Florida

Co-Author(s)

JQ

Jawwad A. Qureshi

Associate Professor
University of Florida
Immokalee, Florida

Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) Diaphorina citri is the primary vector of the huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease. HLB limits the health and fruit production of the infected trees. Citrus production has decreased drastically ( >70%) since the advent of HLB in Florida in 2005. There is no cure for the disease yet. Several strategies, including high-density plantings, are being tested to increase profit in the early years of tree production. There are several unknowns for this new concept, including a lack of knowledge to understand the response of arthropods to these increasing plant densities. We conducted experiments to investigate the influence of different planting densities on the populations of Diaphorina citri and its natural enemies at the University of Florida, Southwest Florida Research and Education Center, Immokalee, Florida. The experiments were conducted on four-year-old sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) trees budded on the ‘US-897’ (Cleopatra mandarin x Flying Dragon trifoliate orange) citrus rootstock. Six planting densities at 447, 512, 598, 717, 745, and 897 trees per hectare replicated four to six times were used in the experiments. Findings on the colonization of Diaphorina citri and its natural enemies as well as the impact of natural enemies on pest populations will be discussed.