{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T07:17:03Z","timestamp":1769152623028,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,7]],"date-time":"2022-02-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1644192000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PTDC\/ASP-PLA\/29110\/2017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PTDC\/ASP-PLA\/29110\/2017"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SFRH\/BD\/118834\/2016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/118834\/2016"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF) and Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","award":["UIDP\/04129\/2020+UIDB\/04129\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDP\/04129\/2020+UIDB\/04129\/2020"]}]},{"name":"Forest Research Centre (CEF) and Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","award":["FCT UIDB\/00239\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["FCT UIDB\/00239\/2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Insects"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Despite their importance as biological control agents, zoophytophagous dicyphine mirids can produce economically important damage. We evaluated the phytophagy and potential impact on tomato plants of Dicyphus cerastii and Nesidiocoris tenuis. We developed a study in three parts: (i) a semi-field trial to characterize the type of plant damage produced by these species on caged tomato plants; (ii) a laboratory experiment to assess the effect of fruit ripeness, mirid age, and prey availability on feeding injuries on fruit; and (iii) a laboratory assay to compare the position of both species on either fruit or plants, over time. Both species produced plant damage, however, although both species produced scar punctures on leaves and necrotic patches on petioles, only N. tenuis produced necrotic rings. Both species caused flower abortion at a similar level. Overall, N. tenuis females produced more damage to tomato fruit than D. cerastii. There was an increased frequency of D. cerastii females found on the plants over time, which did not happen with N. tenuis. Our results suggested that, although D. cerastii caused less damage to fruit than N. tenuis, it still fed on them and could cause floral abortion, which requires field evaluation and caution in its use in biological control strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/insects13020175","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,7]],"date-time":"2022-02-07T20:36:42Z","timestamp":1644266202000},"page":"175","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Half Friend, Half Enemy? Comparative Phytophagy between Two Dicyphini Species (Hemiptera: Miridae)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Paula","family":"Souto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4652-3240","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gon\u00e7alo","family":"Abra\u00e7os-Duarte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Elsa Borges","family":"da Silva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Forest Research Centre (CEF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0795-4216","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisabete","family":"Figueiredo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"},{"name":"Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s10526-011-9395-1","article-title":"The state of commercial augmentative biological control: Plenty of natural enemies, but a frustrating lack of uptake","volume":"57","year":"2012","journal-title":"BioControl"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"253","DOI":"10.17660\/ActaHortic.2012.927.28","article-title":"Mirid bugs as biological control agents in protected tomato crops in the Oeste region","volume":"927","author":"Figueiredo","year":"2012","journal-title":"Acta Hortic."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abra\u00e7os-Duarte, G., Ramos, S., Valente, F., Borges da Silva, E., and Figueiredo, E. 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