This work puts forward a dynamical population model to qualitatively reproduce the phenomena of apparent competition and apparent mutualism found in an experiment with two arthropods being attacked by a predator in a context of pest biological control in greenhouse crops. The two agricultural pests consist of one species of thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande 1895)) and one species of whiteflies (Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood, 1956), and the shared predator is a predatory mite (Amblyseius swirskii Athias-Herriot, 1962). The predatory mite is the biocontrol agent employed in order to achieve the biological control. The proposed model successfully reproduces this density mediated indirect interactions between pests when their carrying capacities are increased. Moreover, the pests’ final population levels may depend on their initial densities and those of their predator. With these results, the proposed model may have the potential to assess whether these indirect pest interactions disrupt or enhance biological control. Additionally, it can also be used as an ancillary tool to theoretically assess the effects of pest biocontrol strategies in the referred experimental setup.

这项工作提出了一个动态种群模型，以定性地再现在温室作物害虫生物防治背景下两个节肢动物受到捕食者攻击的实验中发现的明显竞争和明显共生现象。这两种农业害虫包括一种蓟马（Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande 1895)）和一种粉虱（Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood，1956），共同的捕食者是掠食性螨（A mblyseius swirskiiAthias-Herriot，1962 年）。捕食性螨是为了实现生物防治而使用的生物防治剂。当害虫的承载能力增加时，所提出的模型成功地再现了这种密度介导的害虫之间的间接相互作用。此外，害虫的最终种群数量可能取决于它们的初始密度及其捕食者的密度。有了这些结果，提议的模型可能有可能评估这些间接害虫相互作用是否破坏或增强了生物控制。此外，它还可以用作辅助工具，从理论上评估害虫生物防治策略在参考实验设置中的效果。