DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jh72f
title: Data from: Natural vegetation benefits synergistic control of the three main insect and pathogen pests of fruit crop in southern Africa

description: 1. Most studies of the potential for natural habitat to improve
 agricultural productivity have been conducted in transformed, temperate
 regions, but little is known of the importance of agroecosystem services
 in biodiverse developing countries. 2. Natural vegetation may promote the
 density and/or diversity of natural enemies of crop pests, but the
 strength of the effect varies, and few studies directly measure concurrent
 impacts on pest density. Considering multiple pest species within the same
 agroecosystem may help explain why some pests are more affected than
 others by landscape complexity. Here, we investigated multiple pest
 species (three species of Tephritidae fruit fly, leaf galling flies and
 pathogenic fungi Fusarium spp.) and their enemies in cultivated mango
 Mangifera indica, in north-eastern South Africa. 3. The density of
 generalist Tephritidae fruit flies increased with distance from natural
 vegetation during harvesting months, and predation rate of pupae sharply
 decreased from ~50% at the edge with natural vegetation to 0% at 250 m
 into the crop. Parasitism rates of the cryptic, gall-forming fly increased
 with proximity to natural vegetation, but pest density was unrelated to
 distance from natural vegetation. Incidence of the fungal pathogen disease
 increased with distance from natural vegetation, possibly due to decreased
 predation of commensal mites. 4. Although the relationship with distance
 to natural vegetation was significant for all species considered, the
 strength of this relationship varied across pest species and type of
 natural enemy studied, suggesting the benefits of natural vegetation
 depend on each natural enemy species' ability to disperse into the
 agricultural environment. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results
 suggest that natural vegetation is a net source of natural enemies in a
 region of South Africa that still contains much of its natural
 biodiversity. However, the decline in natural enemies, and increase in
 pests, with distance from natural habitat indicates that this biocontrol
 is limited by natural enemy dispersal. In landscapes like these that are
 still dominated by natural habitat, conservation biocontrol can still be
 improved by management aimed at providing corridors of key plants and
 habitat elements into the crops, to facilitate natural enemy dispersal.
description: Census data for resub
 2Ceratitis spp. counts
 for various points within the field.Census
 (resub)Data analysis script for
 the Ceratitis census data.flowermalformationProportion of inflorescences malformed by fungal pathogen as a function of distance from the natural vegetation.flowermalformationR script for analysis of flower malformation rates.midgesResults of gall dissections for mango leaves collected at various distances from the natural vegetation. Looking for gall flies and their parasitoid.galls and parasitoidsR script for analysis of relationship between gall density and parasitism rate as a function of distance from the natural vegetation.Mango610Results of rearing fruit flies from mangos collected in the field.Rearing DomAnalysis looking at pre-eclosure mortality of fruit fly pupae from reared mangos.pupae71edgeRecordings of fruit fly pupal mortality at various distances into the natural and agricultural environments.