Fumigant Toxicity and Sublethal Effects of Acroptilon repens Extracts on Life Table Parameters and Population Projection of Trialeurodes vaporariorum, (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• sahar sarboland ¹
• Faiba Mehrkhou ¹
• mohammd Fattahi ²
• maryam forouzan ³

¹ Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

² Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

³ Plant Protection Research Department, West Azarbaijan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, AREEO, Urmia, Iran.

10.22067/jpp.2025.92221.1222

Abstract

Introduction[1]
Greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, Westwood (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is one of the most destructive pests on the greenhouse and vegetables products in the world. Both of adults and nymphs cause economic damages through sucking the phloem sap, and secretion of large amounts of honeydew which supports the growth of sooty mold. Additionally, it transmits some plant viruses’ pathogens. Usage of synthetic insecticides is one of the most common methods in management of greenhouse whitefly which resulted in some side effects on natural enemies, pest resurgence, environmental pollution, and pest resistance, as well. Hence, in the present study, we used the biorational and plant-based with insecticidal properties, Acroptilon repens, Russian knapweed, (Asteraceae). It is known as a persistent weed and it has an insecticidal potential. It was widely reported from different parts of Iran. The aerial tissues of A. repens possess aromatic amines, and sterols, as well as sesquiterpene lactones. It’s repellency, contact toxicity, fumigant toxicity, anti-oviposition, and antifeedant properties against insect pests refer to the existence of aforementioned constituents.
 Materials and Methods
Aerial parts of A. repens was collected from wheat field in Vaqasluy-e Sofla (45°1'E, 37°39'N), West Azerbaijan, Iran during 2021-2023 which identified by Dr. Mahnaz Heydari and preserved in the herbarium at Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), West Azerbaijan, Urmia, Iran with specimen number 106606. The colony of T. vaporariorum was reared on tomato (variety Sun-seed 6189). The rearing of the insect was continued until they reached the desired stage for doing the bioassays. The insect colony was kept in a growth chamber at 25± 2° C and 60 ± 10% RH at a photoperiod of 16: 8 h (L:D). The immersion method was used to obtain the methanolic and aqueous extracts of A. repens, in which, 50 grams of the Russian knapweed were soaked in 300 ml of solvents (aqueous and 80% methanol) and placed on a shaker at room temperature for 48 hours, then the obtained extracts filtered twice, next concentrated by a rotary vacuum distillation machine at 40°C with speed of 100 rpm. The obtained concentrated liquid was spread on a watch glass until the solvent was removed entirely. Finally, the obtained powder gathered and stored in dark-colored lidded jars inside the refrigerator at 4°C. The bioassay tests were performed to obtain the lethal (LC₅₀) and (LC₂₅) concentrations of Russian knapweed extracts by using the adult stage of greenhouse whitefly. Based on preliminary tests which caused the mortality in the ranges between 10-90%, five final concentrations (19.53, 78.12,1250, 6500, and 7000) and (409.6, 1024, 2560, 6400 and 16000 µl/L) were used for aqueous and methanolic extracts, respectively. To study the sublethal effects, the filter papers (Whatman No. 1) were impregnated with LC₂₅ concentration of each A. repens extracts, and then attached to the screw caps of the containers. Lids were screwed tightly and sealed with Para film. Then, 15 adults of the greenhouse whitefly were released into the treated containers for 24h, After 24 h, the alive adults were collected and released on tomato plants to laid eggs. The obtained eggs (60 the samed aged for each treatment) were used to study the life table experiments. Their developmental time, survival, adult longevity and fecundity were checked daily. The age stage, two-sex life table method was used to analyze the collected data. We used the bootstrap technique with 100,000 iterations to estimate the variance and standard errors of the biological and population parameters. Sigma Plot software used to draw graphs. The growth of the pest population over 60 days was done with Timing-MsChart software.
 Results and Discussion
The current study shown the aqueous extract of Russian knapweed was more toxic than the methanolic extract on adults of greenhouse whitefly. Moreover, the sublethal concentrations (LC₂₅) of both extracts affected the biological and life table parameters of greenhouse whitefly by prolonging the developmental period, decreasing the survival rate, adult longevity and fecundity. According to obtained results, however, there was no significant differences between extracts in terms of population growth parameters, but the aforementioned parameters were decreased compared to control groups. The mean generation time (T) of the greenhouse whitefly was the longest in aqueous extract, then followed by methanolic and control treatments.
Conclusions
The overall results demonstrated that, both of the used extracts were effective on population parameters of greenhouse whitefly, however, the aqueous extract, due to an increase in the duration of the immature stages and the increase in the length of one generation, caused a greater decrease in the growth rate of the greenhouse whitefly population compared to the methanol extract, which, if formulated, can be used as a plant-based insecticide in the management of the target plant pest.



 
 



 

Keywords

• Chronic toxicity
• Demographic parameters
• Population growth parameters
• Greenhouse whitefly
• Russian knapweed

Main Subjects

• pests

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©2025 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source.

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