Uma abordagem global sobre o uso de joaninhas no controle biológico

Abstract

One of the main challenges for current agriculture is the proliferation of pest insects in crops, especially different species of aphids, due to the large number of crops they infest, their high reproductive capacity, and the transmission of various phytopathogenic viruses. Depending on the degree of infestation, biological control becomes essential to reduce this population without the problems associated with the use of chemical products, and ladybugs are known to be the main predators of these insects. Using bibliometrics, it is possible to analyze scientific advancements in the field over a period of time, and in this work, the last 20 years of research on aphid biological control with ladybugs were analyzed, a seemingly restricted topic but one that encompasses various discussions. A research with three keywords was conducted in the Web of Science database, where all results published between 2003 and 2023 were selected and analyzed with the aid of VOSviewer, a software for creating bibliometric analysis maps. The early works in this period were mostly from the United States of America and European countries, where there was a growing interest in extremely voracious and easily adaptable exotic species of lady beetles such as the Asian ladybug (H. axyridis, Pallas), for example. Over the years, numerous studies began to document the imbalance of local biodiversity caused by these predators in the regions where they settled, increasing researchers' interest in native species worldwide. Currently, much research has been conducted on the resistance of various ladybugs to climate change and different insecticides, as well as an increase in research related to aphid species and their attack on agricultural crops. It is concluded that research in this area has advanced significantly, but to make the use of ladybugs in biological control programs viable, more studies related to the dispatch and handling of these insects in the field are necessary