Two-way predation between larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda and Spodoptera litura

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Spodoptera frugiperda has co-occurred with the Spodoptera litura in corn fields since it invaded China on December, 2018. In our process of rearing S. frugiperda and S. litura larvae in the lab, we discovered that when the larvae of S. litura and S. frugiperda were on the same host plant, the two-way predation between them occurred. However, a detailed study on this phenomenon has not been reported currently. Therefore, the study on the two-way predation between larvae of S. frugiperda and S. litura was performed under mimicing natural conditions including the presence or absence of maize leaves. The results showed that 4th instar larvae of S. frugiperda could prey actively on the 3rd instar larvae of S. litura under natural conditions in the greenhouse, and there was two-way predation between S. frugiperda and S. litura larvae in either the presence or absence of maize leaves in the lab. In addition, the difference in the daily predation number of S. frugiperda larvae (4th-6th instar) on young larvae of S. litura(1st-3rd instar) was significant between presence and absence of maize leaves. Similarly, the difference in the daily predation number of S. litura larvae (4th-6th instar) on S. frugiperda younglarvae (1st-3rd instar) was very significant between presence and absence of maize leaves. These results confirm that two-way predation exists between larvae of S. frugiperda and S. litura and provide a new strategy for the green control for S. frugiperda.