Bulletin of Insectology (2013) 66, 143-152

Pawel K. Beres, Halina Kucharczyk and Marek Kucharczyk (2013)
Thrips abundance on sweet corn in southeastern Poland and the impact of weather conditions on their population dynamics
Bulletin of Insectology 66 (1), 143-152
Abstract: In the study years, thrips (Thysanoptera) began infesting the sweet corn plants from the first (2008) or the second (2009-2010) decade of May. A single population peak was observed during pest development and it took place in the second decade of July. The pests ceased from the plants by the second (2008-2009) or third (2010) decade of September. Field and laboratory observation demonstrated that thrips fed on all the aboveground plant parts. Initially, the highest number of individuals was found on the bottom side of leaves, and later in sheaths, on fresh silk, under the cob husk, and on tassels. In total, during the study years, 16 species of thrips were found on sweet corn. Anaphothrips obscurus (Muller) was found on plants at the earliest time. Frankliniella tenuicornis (Uzel) was the dominant species, and its individuals accounted for 65.4 to 80.5% of the total number of thrips collected in consecutive years. The second most frequent species was Haplothrips aculeatus (F.), and its share in the collected samples was between 13.6 and 22.1%. H. aculeatus normally attained its population peak two weeks after the dominant species, i.e. F. tenuicornis. Weather conditions (precipitation and temperature) affected the speed of corn plant growth, date of plant infestation by thrips, and the duration of the population peak of thrips on the plants. However, weather conditions had no effect on the date of the thrips population peak occurrence, which was between 13 and 15 July in consecutive years.
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Database assignments for author(s): Pawel K. Beres, Halina Kucharczyk

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
population dynamics/ epidemiology
surveys/sampling/distribution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Frankliniella tenuicornis	Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Poland
	Anaphothrips obscurus	Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Poland
	Haplothrips aculeatus	Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Poland
	Aptinothrips rufus	Maize/corn (Zea mays)	Poland