Two glasshouse trials in a capsicum crop near Warkworth New Zealand in January 2011 and two field trials in a nectarine orchard near Lleida Spain in July 2013 were undertaken to determine if trap capture of Frankliniella occidentalis (western flower thrips WFT) and Thrips tabaci (onion thrips OT) could be increased by alternative volatile compounds beyond the known thrips attractant methyl isonicotinate (MI) On blue sticky board traps in the crop in New Zealand none of six alternative compounds tested caught more thrips (mostly WFT OT and two other species) than the Control traps In contrast to MI catches with the alternative lures were mostly significantly lower For both trials in the orchard in Spain using white water traps the highest numbers of WFT and OT were caught higher than most of the nine alternative odour compounds tested

SUMMARYPlants of Commelina communis L. were grown in media containing different concentrations of calcium from 1 to 8 mol m"^. After 4 weeks' growth stomatal behaviour was studied both on the intact plants and on isolated abaxial epidermis. The efTect of Ca nutrition on stomatal opening was apparetitly different according to these two methods of observation. The apertures measured in light and in absence of COj were smaller oti abaxial epidermal strips from plants grown at larger Ca concentrations than those grown at smaller concentrations. The inhibition of opening 'was thought to be due to the presence of free Ca^'^ ions because inhibition was not found when fi^GTA %vas included in the medium used for incubating the isolated epidermis, and significant quantities of Ca were lost to the medium by epidermal tissue from plants grown on high concentrations of Ca.Studies on the leaves of intact plants were made with a diffusion porometer and hy gas exchange techniques using a leaf cuvette in which the environment was closely controlled. /2/f, curves were used to partition nonstomatal and stomatal limitations to gas exchange. Porometer measuremetits of stomatal conductatice, determined within the growth room, indicated reduced values for plants grown at low Ca compared with those grown at high Ca, i.e. the observations contradicted those obtained with isolated epidermis.Biomass production increased with Ca up to 4 mol m"^. Analysis of A/c^ curves indicated that plants grown at the larger Ca concentration showed significantly greater valties for carboxylation efficiency (dA/ticy Partitioning of stomatal and non-stomatal limitations to carbon fixatioti indicated that the gas-phase limitations of COj were similar at different Ca concentrations. Differences in carboxylation efficiency eotild account for the greater biomass accumulation found at the larger Ca concentration.Calcium analysis indicated that plants grown at high Ca contained greater bulk leaf Ca concentrations, and a difference in Ca concentration was also evident in epidermal tissue, hut the relative distribution of fractionated epidernnal Ca was similar. Xylem sap Ca analysis also revealed more Ca in the apoplast of high Ca growti plants.The differences in stomatal behaviour in isolated epidermis and in the intact leaves suggest that in Ca-rich plants, the level of free Ca** ions in the vicinity of guard cells is controlled, thus preventing inhibition of stomatal opening and interference with gas exchange. The loss of this control when epidermis is detached implies that the presence of the mesophyll tissue is important.

New Zealand flower thrips (NZFT Thrips obscuratus (Crawford)) were exposed to a range of ethyl formate (EF) and pyrethrumbased postharvest treatments on apricots Research showed that EFCO2 or EFN2 were effective treatments against NZFT and caused negligible damage to apricot fruit quality However pyrethrum dipping did not effectively control NZFT and caused significant internal damage to apricot fruit Lethal concentration (LC99) estimates were developed for adult and larval NZFT using a range of EF concentrations (0127 EFCO2) and temperatures (5 15 and 25C) It is estimated that treatments of 1 (307 g/m3) EF at 5 or 25C or a higher concentration of 15 (463 g/m3) at 15C will achieve 99 mortality of NZFT adults and larvae on apricot fruit with 95 confidence

Low oxygen and/or generally recognised as safe (GRAS)/food additive (FA) treatments in combination with cool storage have the potential to disinfest a range of commodities of various pests This paper reports on research to determine the tolerance of second/third and fifth instar codling moth larvae fifth instar lightbrown apple moth larvae mixed stages of greedy scale and obscure mealybugs and diapausing twospotted mite adults to ultra low oxygen (ULO lt;05 O2) and ULO combined with two GRAS/ FA compounds ethyl acetate and ethyl formate ULO alone did not consistently enhance mortality of these pests compared with air cool storage However addition of 30005000 ppm of ethyl acetate or ethyl formate reduced the time taken to achieve 99 mortality from weeks or months to between 8 h and 5 days depending on the pest

Amblydromalus limonicus has the potential to suppress TPP populations on pepper but not tomato cultivars, based on the present study. Possible reasons for these results include the difference in leaf morphology between species, and higher predator:prey ratios on pepper than tomato because of the longer TPP generation time on pepper. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.