Bioassays to evaluate effects of biopesticides on non-target organisms are generally restricted to measuring such effects on mortality rates, caused either by pathogenicity or toxicity and changes in their predation or parasitism rate. Evaluations on survivorship and reproduction, necessary to construct fertility life tables, are also important by allowing a measurement of population growth rates of those organisms. The intrinsic rate of increase (rm), net reproduction rate (Ro), mean generation time (MGT) and doubling time (DT) of Nabis sp. were evaluated during two consecutive generations for predators fed healthy Anticarsia gemmatalis (Hübner) caterpillars and predators fed caterpillars infected by a formulation of a nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) of this host. Such parameters and their respective variances were estimated using jackknife method. No significant differences were observed in this study for these parameters, what indicates that the biopesticide does not affect Nabis sp., even when it is fed exclusively virus-infected caterpillars.
Insecta; predator; NPV; velvetbean caterpillar; pathogenicity; toxicity
