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SPECIES or GROUP
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PREY
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COMMENTS
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Cecidomyiid fly (Aphidoletes aphidimyza) larva
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aphids, mites, scale insects
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Small orange maggots found in aphid colonies, often provide summer control of apple aphid.
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Syrphid fly larva
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aphids
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Larva consumes 200800 aphids. Adults are important apple pollinators.
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Tachinid fly larva
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primarily the immature stages of moths, beetles, and sawflies.
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Adults look like house flies, but with more hairs.
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Green lacewing larva
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aphids, leafhoppers, mites, eggs and small lepidoptera larvae, mealybugs, scale insects.
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Active early spring to late summer. Consume 20 to several hundred aphids a day.
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Ladybird beetle adults and larvae
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aphids, mites, scale insects, small caterpillars, plant bugs. |
Many species found in orchards. Average female eats over 2000 aphids before she dies.
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Stethorus punctum, ladybird beetle
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European red mites and twospotted spider mites.
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Larva and adult eat up to 100 mites a day. More likely where mite density is 5 mites/leaf or higher. May be limited to southern New England.
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Ground beetle and Rove beetle species
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Ground beetles: caterpillars, cutworms, pest lifestages that inhabit soil. Rove beetles: aphids and mites.
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Adults and larvae are both predaceous.
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Minute pirate bug
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aphids and other small insects, mites, young scales, insect eggs.
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Nymphs can consume about 30 mites a day.
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Damsel bugs and assassin bugs (other true bug families)
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Combined prey list includes aphids, leafhoppers, mites, moth eggs, small caterpillars. May also feed on tarnished plant bug nymphs.
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Both families have long beaks. Nymphs and adults are predaceous.
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Braconid wasp species
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aphids, bark beetles, caterpillars (codling moth, leafroller, etc.), leafminers.
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Pholetesor ornigis is a key parasite of tissue-feeding leafminer larvae. It leaves a white cocoon in the mine. |
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Sympiesis marylandensis, Eulophid wasp
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leafminer tissue-feeding stage larvae
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Wasp larva is a key factor in leafminer suppression. Adults also feed on leafminer larvae.
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Chalcid wasp species
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aphids, leafminers, moth eggs and caterpillars, scale insects.
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In some pest species, chalcid parasitism may exceed 50 percent of the population.
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Ichneumonid wasp species
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larvae of moths, butterflies, beetles, sawflies.
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Adults generally larger than other wasp parasites, with a long ovipositor.
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Amblyseius fallacis and Typhlodromus pyri, Phytoseiid predator mite species
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European red mites and twospotted spider mites.
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A. fallacis is a fast moving, yellow mite about the size of ERM, that moves back into trees in mid-summer. Where abundant, it can provide effective pest mite control.
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Zetzellia mali, Stigmaeid predator mite
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Primarily European red mite (ERM) eggs.
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Adults are lemon yellow. Feeding pattern complements predation by Phytoseiid predators as they prefer different ERM stages.
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Spiders (many species)
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All spider species are predators, primarily on insects. Leafhoppers, leafminer larvae, and many other apple pests are probably preyed upon by spiders.
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The role of spiders in orchard pest regulation is not yet well understood.
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