Chewing insects, pollinators, and predators on Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Beth (Fabales: Fabaceae) plants fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge

Fertilization with dehydrated sewage sludge can speed up the recovery process of degraded areas due to nutrients concentration, favoring the development of pioneer plants such as Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. ex Beth (Fabales: Fabaceae) and the emergence of insects. This study aimed the evaluation of chewing, pollinating insects, predators, their ecological indices and relationships on A. auriculiformis plants fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge. The experimental design was completely randomized with two treatments (with and without dehydrated sewage sludge) and 24 repetitions. The prevalence of chewing insects Parasyphraea sp. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), Nasutitermes sp. (Blattodea: Termitidae), and Tropidacris collaris (Stoll, 1813) (Orthoptera: Romaleidae), defoliation, and ecological indices of abundance of Coleoptera and Orthoptera were observed on fertilized A. auriculiformis. Acacia auriculiformis plants, with a superior number of branches/tree, revealed greater abundance of Coleoptera and Orthoptera, species richness of pollinating insects, defoliation, numbers of Parasyphraea sp. and T. collaris. The ones with larger leaves/branches displayed greater abundance of species richness of Coleoptera and Diabrotica speciosa (Germar, 1824) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). Therefore, the use of A. auriculiformis plants, fertilized with dehydrated sewage sludge, is promising in the recovery of degraded areas due to the ecological indices increase of chewing and pollinators insects and spiders in the analyzed area.

Seasonal abundance of major sucking and chewing insects of guava

Seasonal abundances of the sucking insects, namely mealy bug, white fly and scale insects, and chewing insect viz., fruit fly was monitored during September, 2016 to June, 2017 in a guava Psidium guajava orchard. Sucking insect was monitored by weekly observation on the leaves and chewing insect was captured using methyl eugenol trap. The mealy bug, white fly and scale insects were abundant during 4th week of November to 4th week of January and they showed fluctuations in their population. The mealy bug, white fly and scale insects had peak abundance in the 1st week of January, 4th week of November and 1st week of December, respectively. The scale insect revealed significantly higher abundance compared to other sucking insects. Two species of fruit fly, namely Bactrocera tryoni and B. dorsalis were found in the guava orchard and B. tryoni showed significantly higher abundance compared to B. dorsalis both in winter and summer seasons. In winter, B. tryoni reached the peak abundance in the 2nd week of January and their peak abundance in summer occurred in the 1st week of May. The daily mean temperature and relative humidity influenced the abundance of the sucking and chewing insects. Temperature individually contributed 30.0, 59.6, 59.3% abundance and temperature with relative humidity had 34.8, 60.9 and 73.5% abundance on mealy bug, white fly and scale insect, respectively. The effect of temperature on the abundance of fruit fly in winter and summer were 42.6 and 50.3%, respectively and the combined effect of temperature with relative humidity were 68.7% in winter and 61.9% in summer. Bangladesh J. Zool. 47(1): 97-105, 2019

Insect Management for Potatoes

Chewing insects can cause serious yield and quality losses in potatoes by feeding on the leaves, stems or tubers. Sucking insects can cause direct losses from feeding and indirect losses by transmitting viral diseases. The most important of these insects are described below. A table at the end of the chapter lists insecticides currently registered for potatoes. This document is ENY-469 (which replaces ENY-438), one of a series of the Entomology & Nematology Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Published: November 2001. Revised: August 2005. ENY-469/IG155: Insect Management for Potatoes (ufl.edu)

Influence of Bt Maize on Diversity and Composition of Non-target Arthropod Species

Non-target arthropods may be affected by toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) expressed in transgenic maize. The objective of this study was to evaluate the possible impacts of Bt maize on the diversity and the composition of non-target arthropod species by analyzing one field cultivated with conventional maize (no expressing transgenic protein) and three fields cultivated with transgenic maize (expressing Bt proteins). In each field was sampled 50 entirely plants for the number of arthropod specimens and registred the degree of injury caused by the chewing insects. A total of 2.525 specimens of arthropods, comprising 29 species from 25 families, were recorded on 3.000 sampled plants. The most diverse family belonged to the order Hemiptera. Based on Shannon and Simpson indexes, the Bt-transgenic cultivar EXP3320YG had lower level of non-target arthropod diversity than other cultivars. From this study, it is clear that the diversity of non-target arthropods on maize crop is negatively affected by Cry1Ab protein, while the Cry1A105+Cry2Ab2+Cry1F proteins, and Cry1A105+Cry2Ab2+Cry3Bb1 proteins do not have any effect on arthropod species diversity and composition.