seed grant competition

Understanding native lady beetle decline in Ohio landscapes

mary gardiner, entomology Lady beetles are important predators of agricultural pests, providing a key ecosystem service to farmers and gardeners. In recent decades, dramatic declines in multiple native lady beetle species have occurred across the north central United States. One hypothesis to explain this is that non-native lady beetles are consuming the eggs of native species, leading to a reduction in their abundance. This project was the first to conduct a large-scale test of this hypothesis in the field by measuring rates of native and nonnative lady beetle egg predation within common foraging habitats and determining the organisms responsible. Researchers found that all lady beetle species suffered egg predation in foraging habitats ranging from grasslands to corn and soybean fields. However, the eggs of native species were consumed more frequently by predators compared to common non-native species. These data indicate that greater egg predation of native lady beetles may be contributing to their decline. As previous laboratory studies had focused on the role of non-native lady beetles as egg predators, the research

In recent decades, dramatic declines in multiple native lady beetle species have occurred across the north central United States.
team expected to find that these species were the dominant predators of native and non-native eggs. However, the team found no incidences of non-native lady beetles acting as egg predators. Instead, a diverse community was responsible for native lady beetle egg predation, particularly harvestmen or daddy long legs, grasshoppers, and slugs. Prior to this study, their predation of lady beetle eggs and their potential role in the decline in native lady beetles was not known. In addition, the complexity of the predator group attacking lady beetle egg masses was found to be much greater in grassland habitats, which are often thought of as a refuge for lady beetles. In addition to its research goals, the project established the Buckeye Lady Beetle Blitz (BLBB), a citizen science program to monitor lady beetle populations across Ohio. Participants attended annual workshops across the state where they were provided with training to identify lady beetles and other beneficial insects and received a toolkit for collecting lady beetle data. Over 450 participants have collected data on the abundance of lady beetles from their backyard garden as part of this project to date. These volunteers provide critical data used to track populations of lady beetles throughout the state. The BLBB project is ongoing, and more details are available on the project website (http://ladybeetles.osu.edu). Future work on lady beetle populations will examine whether egg predation explains the decline of rare native lady beetles. The team will compare rates of egg predation in Ohio with regions where these species remain common, as well as whether other lady beetle species are exhibiting early indications of population decline.

mary gardiner

www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/seeds

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SEEDS: The OARDC Research Enhancement Competitive Grants Program