Journal of Economic Entomology (2010) 103, 1613-1620

G. Boiteau, P.C. McCarthy and P.D. MacKinley (2010)
Wind as an abiotic factor of Colorado potato beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) flight take-off activity under field conditions
Journal of Economic Entomology 103 (5), 1613-1620
Abstract: The flight take-off activity of Colorado potato beetles, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), was significantly higher at a landscape-protected than at semiexposed and exposed sites in a 2-yr field study. In both years, mean daylight temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity were generally similar at all sites, but wind speed was lower at the protected site than at the exposed sites. Results suggest that wind was the limiting abiotic factor for flight take-off at the exposed site. Caged beetles exposed to constant wind speeds of 3.4, 4.7, and 7.0 m/s showed a significant corresponding decrease in number of flight take-off. There was no cumulative effect of wind exposure on the readiness of the beetles to fly, suggesting that wind acts as a physical barrier to flight take-off. It should be possible to reduce Colorado potato beetle flight dispersal by selecting fields most exposed to wind over landscape-protected fields when rotating potato, Solanum tuberosum L., crops.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Gilles Boiteau

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

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Leptinotarsa decemlineata		Canada (east)