Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:59:42.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dispersal of the sugar-cane scale Aulacaspis tegalensis (Zhnt.) (Hem., Diaspididae) by air currents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

D. J. Greathead
D. J. Greathead
Affiliation:
Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control (East African Station), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

By means of sticky traps and a suction trap, it was demonstrated on a plot of sugar-cane at Kawanda Research Station, Uganda, that large numbers of crawlers of Aulacaspis tegalensis (Zhnt.) become airborne (up to 10/m3). The numbers increase with wind speed up to about 2·0 m/s and then remain constant, but are depressed by increasing humidity. In laboratory experiments, crawler survival was reduced by high temperatures (30°C) and low humidities (30% r.h.), but some individuals should survive the extreme conditions sometimes experienced if airborne from morning until evening. On hatching, crawlers move upwards and towards the light, but downwards in the dark; movement is inhibited by high humidity. These behaviour responses indicate hat the presence of crawlers in the air is not accidental but a dispersal mechanism. At Arusha Chini, an isolated sugar estate in Tanzania, sticky-trap catches downwind of a windbreak confirmed that airborne dispersal of crawlers is a major source of infestation. It is shown that air currents could have carried crawlers to Arusha Chini from a source on the Kenya coast, 260 km to the east.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 61 , Issue 3 , February 1972 , pp. 547 - 558
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon (1970). The weather of East Africa during 1969.—52 pp. Nairobi, E. Afr. met. Dep.Google Scholar
Bennett, F. D. & Brown, S. W. (1958). Life history and sex determination in the Diaspine scale, Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Targ.) (Coccoidea).—Can. Ent. 90, 317–325.Google Scholar
Bodenheimer, F. S. (1951). Citrus entomology in the Middle East: with special references to Egypt, Iran, Irak, Palestine, Syria, Turkey—662 pp. The Hague, Junk.Google Scholar
Brown, C. E. (1958). Dispersal of the pine needle scale, Phenacaspis pinifoliae (Fitch), (Diaspididae: Homoptera).—Can. Ent. 90, 685–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornwell, P. B. (1960). Movement of the vectors of virus diseases of cacao in Ghana. II.—Wind movements and aerial dispersal.—Bull. ent. Res. 51, 175–201.Google Scholar
Gregory, P. H. (1951). Deposition of air-borne Lycopodium spores on cylinders.—Ann. appl. Biol. 38, 357–376.Google Scholar
Hoelscher, C. E. (1967). Wind dispersal of brown soft scale crawlers, Coccus hesperidum (Homoptera; Coccidae), and Texas citrus mites, Eutetranychus banksi (Acarina; Tetranychidae), from Texas citrus.—Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 60, 673–678.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. G. (1957). The distribution of insects in the air and the empirical relation of density to height.—J. Anim. Ecol. 26, 479–494.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. G. (1969). Migration and dispersal of insects by flight.—763 pp. London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. G. & Penman, H. L. (1951). Relationship of aphid density to altitude.—Nature, Lond. 168, 337–338.Google Scholar
Lewis, T. & Dibley, G. C. (1970). Air movement near windbreaks and a hypothesis of the mechanism of the accumulation of airborne insects.—Ann. appl. Biol. 66, 477–484.Google Scholar
Madge, D. S. (1961). The control of relative humidity with aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide.—Entomologia exp. appl. 4, 143–147.Google Scholar
Quayle, H. J. (1916). Dispersion of scale insects by the wind.—J. econ. Ent. 9, 486–493.Google Scholar
Rabkin, F. B. & Lejeune, R. R. (1954). Some aspects of the biology and dispersal of the pine tortoise scale Toumeyella numismaticium (Pettit and McDaniel) (Homoptera: Coccidae).—Can. Ent. 86, 570–575.Google Scholar
Rainey, R. C. (1963). Meteorology and the migration of desert locusts. Applications of synoptic meteorology in locust control.—Tech. Notes Wld met. Org. no. 54, 115 pp.Google Scholar
Reed, D. K., Hart, W. G. & Ingle, S. J. (1970). Influence of windbreaks on distribution and abundance of brown soft scale in citrus groves.—Ann. ent. Soc. Am. 63, 792–794.Google Scholar
Southwood, T. R. E.. (1962). Migration of terrestrial arthropods in relation to habitat.—Biol. Rev. 37, 171–214.Google Scholar
Southwood, T. R. E.. (1966). Ecological methods with particular reference to the study of insect populations.—391 pp. London, Methuen.Google Scholar
Strickland, A. H. (1950). The dispersal of Pseudococcidae (Hemiptera-Homoptera) by air currents in the Gold Coast.—Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 25, 1–9.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1955). [With an appendix by W. S. Coleman.] The standardization of air-flow in insect suction traps.—Ann. appl. Biol. 43, 390–408.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1960). The distribution of insects at low levels in the air.—J. Anim. Ecol. 29, 45–63.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1962 a). The absolute efficiency of insect suction traps.—Ann. appl. Biol. 50, 405–421.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. R. (1962 b). The efficiency of cylindrical sticky insect traps and suspended nets.—Ann. appl. Biol. 50, 681–685.Google Scholar
Waiyaki, J. N.. (1970). An outbreak of the white scale of sugarcane Aulacaspis tegalensis, Zehnt. (Diaspididae: Hemiptera) at the Tanganyika Planting Company, Arusha Chini.—Misc. Rep. Trop. Pest. Res. Inst. no. 711, 11 pp.Google Scholar
Williams, J. R. (1970). Studies on the biology, ecology and economic importance of the sugar-cane scale insect, Aulacaspis tegalensis (Zhnt.) (Diaspididae), in Mauritius.—Bull. ent. Res. 60, 61–95.Google Scholar
Woodhead, T. (1969). The diurnal variation of mean wind speed at four locations in Kenya and Tanzania.—E. Afr. agric. For. J. 35, 160–165.Google Scholar
Yasumatsu, K. & Nakao, S. I. (1957). Experiments on the dispersal of the crawling larvae of some Coccoidea (Homoptera) by air currents.—Sci. Bull. Fac. Agric. Kyushu Univ. 16, 203–219. [In Japanese with English summary.]Google Scholar