The obscure mealybug, Pseudococcus viburni, is a serious agricultural pest worldwide. The biological control in commercial fields of P. viburni relies on predators and parasitoids, in particular the generalist coccidophagous ladybird Cryptolaemus montrouzieri and the specific parasitoid Acerophagus flavidulus. However, these two natural enemies can establish an intraguild predation interaction, reducing the efficiency of biological control. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri may negatively impact the population dynamics of A. flavidulus if it feeds indifferently on healthy and parasitized mealybugs. With the aim of improving the biological control of P. viburni, in this work, we studied the feeding behavior of C. montrouzieri in the absence or presence of A. flavidulus larvae of different age within mealybugs, in laboratory conditions. Subsequently, with the data obtained, we mathematically modeled the dynamics of P. viburni to study the impact on P. viburni control of different field implementation schedules for the release of ladybird and parasitoid populations. The ladybird fed on parasitized P. viburni but reduced its consumption when they were infested by parasitoids aged of 4 days or more. Modeling results suggest that these feeding preferences of predators may have a positive impact on pest control, that releasing predators and parasitoids together is in general more effective than releasing them independently, and that releasing highly effective predators alone could be the best choice. Modeling results also provide information on different release schedules.

不起眼的粉蚧，Pseudococcus viburni，是世界范围内的一种严重农业害虫。荚蒾p. viburni商业领域的生物防治依赖于捕食者和寄生蜂，特别是多面性食球虫瓢虫Cryptolaemus montrouzieri和特殊寄生蜂Acerophagus flavidulus。然而，这两种天敌可以建立群内捕食相互作用，降低生物控制的效率。如果Cryptolaemus montrouzieri不以健康和寄生的粉虱为食，可能会对黄曲霉的种群动态产生负面影响。为了提高对荚果P. viburni的生物防治，在这项工作中，我们在实验室条件下研究了粉蚧内不同年龄的黄曲霉幼虫存在或不存在的情况下， C. montrouzieri的摄食行为。随后，利用获得的数据，我们对荚蒾的动态进行了数学建模，以研究瓢虫和寄生蜂种群释放的不同田间实施计划对荚蒾的控制的影响。瓢虫以寄生的维氏拟瓢虫为食，但当瓢虫被 4 天或更长时间的寄生蜂侵染时，瓢虫的消耗量就会减少。建模结果表明，捕食者的这些摄食偏好可能对害虫控制产生积极影响，同时释放捕食者和寄生蜂通常比单独释放它们更有效，并且单独释放高效捕食者可能是最佳选择。建模结果还提供有关不同发布时间表的信息。