author(s)
Imtiaz Ali Khan, Fang-Hao Wan

abstract
The cotton whitefly Bemisia tabaci is a major pest, causing serious losses to many agricultural crops. The ladybird beetle Coccinella septempunctata is an important polyphagous predator of B. tabaci worldwide. In the present study, prey consumption of Encarsia Formosa not parasitized and parasitized B. tabaci biotype B prey by the predator was determined on fresh tomato leaves as arena of observation under a no-choice condition. The experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions at a temperature of 25±2 °C, relative humidity of 60±5%, photoperiod of 16:8h (L: D) and an artificial light intensity of about 4000 lux. E. Formosa did not parasitize B. tabaci eggs and N1 but the subsequent developmental stages of the prey were parasitized. There were no differences in the consumed number of B. tabaci eggs and N1, not exposed and exposed to E. Formosa for parasitization,by the predator larvae and adults. C. septempunctata larvae as well as adults consumed significantly higher mean number of not parasitized N2, N3, N4 and pupal prey than parasitized by E. Formosa. Prey consumption, not parasitized as well as parasitized, increased and parasitized by E. Formosa, than the males. Intraguild predation (IGP) naturally occurs in all kinds of ecosystems in which the natural enemies attack each other and compete for same pest (s) species. Such interactions among natural enemies may have additive, disruptive or no effect on overall pest suppression. The present results provide high feasibility of using together C. septempunctata and E. Formosa in pest management programs against B. tabaci. But, IGP of C. septempunctata on B. tabaci nymphs parasitized by E. Formosa might weaken the overall pest management program.