Effects of weed density on the dispersal of Orius majusculus Reuter (Heteroptera Anthocoridae) within maize
2015
Madeira Nogueira, Filipe | Pons i Domènech, Xavier
Orius majusculus Reuter (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) is the most common and abundant generalist predator in Spanish maize crops and is sensitive to drastic changes in weed density. We carried out a 2-year study in the NE Iberian Peninsula to examine the dispersal of O. majusculus in maize plots with moderately high and low weed density. Insects were collected using yellow sticky traps and/or a bug-vac aspirator. Dispersal was assessed using rubidium as a marker. Dispersal rate of O. majusculus differed between sampling periods, with a maximum between the 16 unfolded leaves (V16) to grain milky (R3) maize growth stages. However, we detected no differences in the distance moved by male and females of O. majusculus from rubidium-marked areas in plots with moderately high or low weed density suggesting that changes in weed density do not affect the dispersal of O. majusculus within a maize field.
Show more [+] Less [-]This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, project AGL2008-02355. Filipe Madeira was also funded by grant BES-2009-020361 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. We thank the Spanish Ministry of Environment, the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology, and Josep Torruella and Josep Piqué for allowing us to use the experimental fields. We also thank Jordi Comas for statistical support, Ramon Albajes for his criticism of the manuscript, Verena Rösch for language revisions and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable commen
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