Adaptation of the Stavropol population of the predatory bug Orius laevigatus (Fieber) (Heteroptera, Anthocoridae) to mass rearing conditions

Natural geographic range of the predatory bug Orius laevigatus which is widely used for biological control of various insect pests in greenhouses includes Western, Central, and Southern Europe, Mediterranean, Northern Africa, and South Asia. In the former USSR it was recorded in the southern Ukraine, Crimea, Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. In 2020 we found O. laevigatus in a sunflower field in Stavropol Territory of Russia. To estimate the biocontrol potential of the Stavropol population, the process of its adaptation to mass rearing conditions was investigated over 17 sequential generations. The experiments have shown that individuals of the Stavropol population did not differ significantly in several important parameters of reproduction and development (female fecundity, survival of preimaginal stages, etc.) under the mass rearing conditions from individuals of the laboratory population reared at these conditions over many tens of generations. These results suggest that the Stavropol population of O. laevigatus originates from bugs sporadically escaped from local greenhouses and mass rearing facilities rather than represents the result of the natural spread from the Black Sea coast caused by global warming.