Weed manipulation for insect pest management in corn

Populations of insect pests and associated predaceous arthropods were sampled by direct observation and other relative methods in simple and diversified corn habitats at two sites in north Florida during 1978 and 1979. Through various cultural manipulations, characteristic weed communities were established selectively in alternate rows within corn plots.Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith) incidence was consistently higher in the weed-free habitats than in the corn habitats containing natural weed complexes or selected weed associations. Corn earworm (Heliothis zea Boddie) damage was similar in all weed-free and weedy treatments, suggesting that this insect is not affected greatly by weed diversity. Only the diversification of corn with a strip of soybean significantly reduced corn earworm damage.In one site, distance between plots was reduced. Because predators moved freely between habitats, it was difficult to identify between-treatment differences in the composition of predator communities. In the other site, increased distances between plots minimized such migrations, resulting in greater population densities and diversity of common foliage insect predators in the weed-manipulated corn systems than in the weed-free plots. Trophic relationships in the weedy habitats were more complex than food webs in monocultures.Predator diversity (measured as mean number of species per area) and predator density was higher in com plots surrounded by mature, complex vegetation than at those surrounded by annual crops. This suggests that diverse adjacent areas to crops provide refuge for predators, thus acting as colonization sources.     

稻鸭萍共作复合系统的主要生态效应

对稻鸭萍共作体系的主要生态效应研究结果表明,稻鸭萍共作有利于提高土壤肥力,水稻收获后的土壤有机质、碱解氮、速效磷、速效钾分别比对照增加7.95%、7.05%、6.47%和4.46%;稻鸭萍共作对杂草的控制效果达到98.94%,明显削弱了稻田优势杂草的发生与危害,稻田残存杂草为数甚少,P ielou均匀度指数显著提高;稻鸭萍共作对稻田飞虱有显著的控制效应,从而明显抑制主要由灰飞虱传毒危害的水稻条纹叶枯病的发病率;稻鸭萍共作虽然对水稻纹枯病也有明显防治效果,但不能阻止纹枯病的发生;由于绿萍吸附了稻田水体中部分有机物、腐殖质等,稻鸭萍共作区水体的化学需氧量比稻鸭共作区降低8.70%。     

宁夏新垦区昆虫群落生态演替及有害种预警系统研究

以宁夏中宁县长山头、大战场（荒漠半荒漠）、灵武市狼皮子梁（沙漠）、青铜峡市渠口农场（草原化荒漠）３类垦前环境及其垦后不同耕作年限（１－１５ａ）农田昆虫群落演替进行了系统调查与研究,事理鉴定出昆虫１１目７９科２０４种,按其分布和种群动态变化划分为原生性种类、共生性种类、继生性种类和迁入性种类４个生态型类群。在此基础上研究了不同目、不同营养型类群和不同生态型类群昆虫多样性变化及时间系列演替,发现随着荒     

潜叶虫潜道图像分析

为通过潜叶虫潜食叶片所留下的潜道分析其分类、行为和生态,应用Getdata图形数字化软件和R语言,提取线形潜道的数字化图像,并获得各种图像形状参数,如平均转角、转角集中度、分维D、直线度ST、蜿蜒度SN等.结果发现:大多数潜道的平均转角较小(不超过±25.0°),转角集中度较高(>0.600),说明潜食方向大多保持为前进方向;多数潜道的ST在0.010到0.300之间,数值极小,而SN一般都超过0.600,表明多数潜叶昆虫潜道的蜿蜒程度非常大;米楮上两种潜叶蛾的潜道形状参数如D和ST存在显著差异.     

长春市不同土地利用生境土壤昆虫幼虫群落组成与生态分布

对长春市郊区天然次生林、市内公园风景林、郊区防护林和农田等土地利用生境进行土壤昆虫幼虫调查,研究土地利用差异对土壤昆虫幼虫群落特征的影响。研究区共捕获土壤昆虫幼虫35科411只,其中鞘翅目幼虫14科319只,双翅目幼虫13科64只,鳞翅目幼虫8科28只。研究结果表明:不同土地利用生境土壤昆虫幼虫群落组成与生态分布存在差异,防护林和农田土壤昆虫幼虫的类群数和个体密度显著减少;除农田外,其他生境土壤昆虫幼虫群落个体密度和类群数主要集中分布在0～5cm土壤层,生境凋落物的移除对土壤昆虫幼虫群落组成影响不明显;此外,鞘翅目、双翅目和鳞翅目幼虫对土地利用和植被类型变化的响应也不同。     

浙江省萧山市山一村农村生态良性循环与系统管理研究 Ⅴ.农田病虫害综合防治试验与实施

本项调控工程分两步:1984—1986年在山一村106ha农田开展病虫害综合防治试验示范;1987—1989年将试验成果应用于生产。试验研究取得了明显的经济效益、生态效益和社会效益:农药用量比1983年前减少80.6％,稻谷中农药残留不超标(原有机氯农药666残留超标率31.6％);害虫天敌稻田蜘蛛增加83.3—180.0％,稻虱多索线虫增加2倍;防治农药成本减少53.7％。并制定了《山一村农田农药污染防治技术规程》,其主要内容有:开展病虫害“二查二定”,达到防治指标时用药;制定病虫害防治策略,在防治适期内用药;推广高效低残留农药,遵守农药安全间隔期;推广抗性良种,适施N肥,增施P、K肥;保护利用天敌,发挥天敌自然抑制作用。     

SO2污染对农业害虫的间接影响

用开顶式熏气罩研究了SO2污染对粘虫、黄地老虎、小菜蛾、桃蚜、萝卜蚜和豆蚜等农业害虫的影响．结果表明,适度SO2污染显著地促进了这些昆虫的生长和／或繁殖,但高浓度SO2污染对它们有明显的不良影响,这种作用是通过食料植物间接发生的．这些昆虫对适度SO2污染的反应因种类而异：3种鳞翅目昆虫表现为幼虫的平均相对生长速率（MRGR）明显加快,成虫繁殖力变化不大;3种蚜虫主要表现为成蚜的繁殖力大幅度提高．若蚜（除豆蚜外）的MRGR也显著增加．对被处理食料植物营养成分的分析表明,SO2污染诱导的蛋氨酸相对含量变化可能是它产生这些间接影响的重要原因．     

A distributed-delay model to predict ageing and survival rates of adults of Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens) (Coleoptera: Laemophloeidae) in granaries filled with wheat

A time-varying distributed-delay model simulating effects of multifactors was developed. Prediction of the ageing rate and survival distribution of adults of the rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens) (Coleoptera: Laemophloeidae) in various environments found in wheat-filled granaries was conducted as an example to illustrate the application of this developed model. Published adult mortalities, determined at different temperatures, relative humidities, and food sources, were directly used to find the average ageing rate and family of cumulative function of adult mortality. The developed model could predict the adult survival rate at constant or transient temperatures with different relative humidities. This model could also simulate the effect of adult acclimation to their environment when they experience temperature and moisture fluctuations inside granaries. To validate the developed model, the simulation results were compared with available experimental data from the literature. There was no difference between predicted and measured mortalities in two granaries in which the mortalities were determined in a 4-month experiment.     

Chemical composition of the slippery epicuticular wax blooms on Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae) ant-plants

Summary. The stems of many Macaranga ant-plants (Euphorbiaceae) are covered by epicuticular wax crystals rendering the surface very slippery for most insects. These wax blooms act as selective barriers protecting the symbiotic ant partners, which are specialized “wax-runners”, against the competition of other ants. Glaucous stems occur almost exclusively among the ant-plants of the genus Macaranga (). We analyzed the cuticular lipids of 16 Macaranga species by GC-MS and investigated the wax crystal morphology using SEM. Presence of crystalline wax blooms was strongly correlated with high concentrations (52%–88%) of triterpenoids. In contrast epicuticular waxes of glossy Macaranga surfaces contained only 0% to 36% of these dominant components. Therefore we conclude that triterpenoids are responsible for the formation of the thread-like Macaranga wax crystals. In all Macaranga ant-plants investigated, the principal components were epitaraxerol and taraxerone accompanied by smaller portions of taraxerol, β-amyrin and friedelin. Only in the case of the non-myrmecophytic M. tanarius did β-amyrin predominate. Moreover, we found that only in M. tanarius, the dense wax crystal lacework is torn into large mosaic-like pieces in the course of secondary stem diameter growth. Both chemical and macroscopic differences may contribute to a reduced slipperiness of M. tanarius stems and appear to be functionally important. The distribution of wax crystals and their composition amongst different sections of the genus suggests that glaucousness is a polyphyletic character within Macaranga. Received 7 October 1999; accepted 3 December 1999     

A test of reproductive skew models in a field population of a multiple-queen ant

Determining the evolutionary basis of variation in reproductive skew (degree of sharing of reproduction among coexisting individuals) is an important task both because skew varies widely across social taxa and because testing models of skew evolution permits tests of kin selection theory. Using parentage analyses based on microsatellite markers, we measured skew among female eggs (n=32.3 eggs per colony, range=20–68) in 17 polygynous colonies from a UK field population of the ant Leptothorax acervorum. We used skew among eggs as our principal measure of skew because of the high degree of queen turnover in the study population. Queens within colonies did not make significantly unequal contributions to queen and worker adult or pupal offspring, indicating that skew among female eggs reflected skew among daughter queens. On average, both skew among female eggs (measured by the B index) and queen–queen relatedness proved to be low (means±SE=0.06±0.02 and 0.28±0.08, respectively). However, contrary to current skew models, there was no significant association of skew with either relatedness or worker number (used as a measure of productivity). In L. acervorum, predictions of the concession model of skew may hold between but not within populations because queens are unable to assess their relatedness to other queens within colonies. Additional phenomena that may help maintain low skew in the study population include indiscriminate infanticide in the form of egg cannibalism and split sex ratios that penalize reproductive monopoly by single queens within polygynous colonies.