Brazilian peppertree, Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi (BP), is a multi-stemmed tropical and subtropical shrub that is highly aggressive in agricultural and natural environments in Florida, USA. Despite being regarded as an upland plant, BP can be found in coastal regions and tolerates brackish water. Pseudophilothrips ichini (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) (BP thrips) was introduced into Florida as a biological control agent to manage BP. The establishment and impacts of this sap-feeding agent in BP-invaded brackish environments may be influenced by salinity stress. Thus, it is important to investigate the influence of brackish water on BP thrips adult survival, development time, fecundity, and F0 adult longevity when BP grows in such environments. In the current study, BP plants were under brackish water for two months at the following salinity levels: control (0 ppt), low (10 ppt), medium (15 ppt), and high (20 ppt) before being exposed to 1st instar BP thrips. F0 adult thrips were transferred to new plants grown at the same salinity until total mortality of F0 adults was observed. A generalized linear model was conducted in R 4.2.1. The results thus far indicated that the adult emergence of P. ichini and time of adult development were not affected at different salinity levels, while each 1 ppt salinity increase resulted in a decline in the average fecundity per adult survival. Thus, evaluating BP thrips development to adulthood under brackish stress is critical in order to determine suitable release locations and effectively regulate BP spread via post-release of BP thrips in brackish environments.
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