Rationale and potential for augmentative biological control of boll weevil on fallow-season cotton in southern Texas.
Summy, K. R.; Morales-Ramos, J. A.; King, E. G.; Greenberg, S. M.; Rankin, M. A.; Hansen, L. G.; Moomaw, C.;
Southwestern Entomologist Year: 1995 Vol: 20 Issue: 4 Pages: 483-491 Ref: 23 ref.
1995
บทคัดย่อ
Research was conducted in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas to evaluate the technical feasibility of natural enemy augmentation as a means of suppressing infestations of Anthonomus grandis in stands of undestroyed cotton during the postharvest fallow season. Augmentative releases of Catolaccus grandis and Bracon mellitor at relatively high rates within a 0.1-ha experimental plot (approx equal to 4000 and approx equal to 2000 mated female parasites/ha per week, resp., during 22 Sept-6 Oct 1993) was accompanied by a significant increase in densities of the former and a slight increase in the latter (to peaks of 14.0 and 0.4 immature parasitoids/m2 by 6 October). Parasitism by C. grandis was largely concentrated among 3rd-instar weevil larvae infesting abscised cotton squares, but caused appreciable mortality within this segment of the host infestation (90.6% apparent). The relatively high incidence of host mortality caused by parasitism within this infestation served to destroy significant numb
ers of immature weevils that appear to have been predisposed to successfully overwinter.