Introduction

Materials and methods

Study sites

This study was conducted at the Atsugi Campus (35.432N 139.346E; at altitudes between 25 and 62 meters above sea level) of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, which is surrounded by residential quarters and a woody and grassy park (Fig. 1). The total site area of the campus is approximately 17.3 ha, within which several greenhouses and open fields for experimental use are present. The study site is located in a warm-temperate climate zone and has an annual mean temperature of 15.3 °C and annual mean precipitation of 1,729.9 mm (Japan Meteorological Agency 2017). In the campus, three survey plots were set (Fig. 1); one of these was an open field (approximately 70 m²), where 40 pepino plants were cultivated (Plot A) (Fig. 2); another was a greenhouse (approximately 53 m²), in which 60 pot pepino plants were grown (Plot B) (Fig. 3); and the other was also a greenhouse (approximately 90 m²), in which approximately 400 pot pepino plants were grown (Plot C) (Fig. 4). In these plots, acaricides were applied approximately every two weeks in order to prevent pepino plants from withering due to mites, except for 20 pepino plants in Plot A; when the density of mites became high, appropriate chemicals were sprayed. All the plots were located within a radius of 250 m.

Figure 1.  

Aerial photograph of the Atsugi Campus of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA) and surrounding residential quarters, with locations of the three survey plots (taken in 2007 by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan).

Figure 2.  

An open field, one of the survey plots in the Atsugi Campus of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), indicated as Plot A in Fig. 1

Figure 3.  

A greenhouse, one of the survey plots in the Atsugi Campus of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), indicated as Plot B in Fig. 1

Figure 4.  

A greenhouse, one of the survey plots in the Atsugi Campus of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), indicated as Plot C in Fig. 1.

Data resources

In this study, a total of 498 specimens of insects and mites were collected from pepino plants on the three studied plots. Of these specimens, 459 individuals belonging to 11 species were recognized as pests of pepino. They consisted of nine insect species belonging to eight families of five orders and two mite species in two families of one order (Table 2). The remaining specimens (39 individuals) were identified as predatory mites attacking other mites (Acari: Phytoseiidae), parasitic wasps of certain insects (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), and incidental visitors to pepino plants, including grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), seed bugs (Hemiptera: Lygaeoidea), and butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae).

Table 2.

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XLSX

List of insect and mite pests found on pepino plants in the Atsugi Campus of Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA), Kanagawa, Japan.

Class	Order	Family	Species	Suvery plots
Insecta	Thysanoptera	Thripidae	Frankliniella intonsa (Trybom, 1895)	A C
Insecta	Hemiptera	Aleyrodidae	Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889)	B C
Insecta	Hemiptera	Aphididae	Aphis gossypii Glover, 1877	A C
Insecta	Hemiptera	Pseudococcidae	Phenacoccus solani Ferris, 1918	C
Insecta	Hemiptera	Miridae	Campylomma livida Reuter, 1885	A
Insecta	Coleoptera	Chrysomelidae	Epitrix hirtipennis (Melsheimer, 1847)	A C
Insecta	Diptera	Agromyzidae	Liriomyza sativae Blanchard, 1938	C
Insecta	Lepidoptera	Noctuidae	Spodoptera litura (Fabricius, 1775)	A B
Insecta	Lepidoptera	Noctuidae	Trichoplusia ni (Hübner, 1803)	B
Arachnida	Acari	Tarsonemidae	Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks, 1904)	C
Arachnida	Acari	Tetranychidae	Tetranychus urticae Koch, 1836	A C

Of these 11 pest species, six were detected from Plot A, three from Plot B, and eight from Plot C (Table 2). The plant bug species Campylomma livida Reuter, 1885 was found only in the open field (Plot A). Five species, the cotton whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889), the mealy bug Phenacoccus solani Ferris, 1918, the tomato leaf miner Liriomyza sativae Blanchard, 1938, the plusiine noctuid caterpillar Trichoplusia ni (Hübner, 1803), and the broad mite Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks, 1904), were found only in greenhouses (Plots B and C); the former two are well known as glasshouse pests in Japan. No pest species were common in all the three plots. On an empirical basis, through our survey in the plots, two pest species, the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae Koch, 1836 and the cotton aphid Aphis gossypii Glover, 1877, were much more abundant on pepino plants than the other pest species recognized, with several hundreds of these two species on each pepino plant.

Regarding virus-like diseases in our research fields, pepino leaves showing necrosis were rarely found in the greenhouse (Fig. 5). However, upper leaves showing mottle symptoms with deformation were remarkably observed only in the acaricide-untreated pepinos in the open field (Plot A) during September to October (Fig. 6). Those symptomatic leaves were tested for the detection of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) and Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), as well as the genera Carlavirus, Potexvirus, and Potyvirus. All tested pepino leaves showed no infection of the above-mentioned viruses (data not shown).

Figure 5.  

Virus-like symptoms on pepino plants: necrotic spots on pepino leaves in a greenhouse (Fig. 1, Plot C).

Figure 6.  

Virus-like symptoms on pepino plants: mottle and deformation on young pepino leaves at an open field (Fig. 1, Plot A).

Analysis

Discussion

Acknowledgements

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