Comportement naturel des Coccinelles aphidiphages du Sud-Est de la France: Leur type de spécificité, leur action prédatrice surAphis fabae L.

Summary The use ofCoccinellidae in the Biological control of aphid pests must be based on a thorough knowledge of their host specificity. The present work is a discussion of this problem in the case of aphidophagous predators in the South eastern part of France. Adult coccinellids are able to disperse widely and to discover many aphid pullulations, some of these are unsuitable for egg production and other-ones do not allow larval nutrition, moreover a little number have a toxic effect (at least when they feed on certain host-plants). The incidence of spatial distribution of adults has been discussed in a previous paper (Iperti, 1965). The different consequences of these facts on the natural control ofAphis fabae L. are shown and some general conclusions drawn on the possibility of improving biological control by coccinellids.

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Communication présentée au ?Symposium Ecology of Aphidophagous insects? Praha-Liblice, 27 IX-1 X 1965.