The black vine weevil Otiorhynchus sulcatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a well-known insect pest causing damages and economic losses on various horticultural plants. In recent times, numerous other weevils like O. rugosostriatus, O. raucus, O. ovatus or O. salicicola are becoming increasingly important in horticulture. We applied mark-release-recapture studies to estimate population size, survival rates, aggregation patterns and dispersal capabilities of adult O. raucus and O. rugosostriatus in a commercial plantation of perennial ornamental plants.Knowledge of these characteristics is important for the correct timing and design of efficient control strategies. Of 191 individually coded O. raucus and 340 O. rugosostriatus, 30 and 24%, respectively, were recaptured at least once over a period of 96 days. The majority of weevils were recaptured within 2-3 m away from their release point and thus both species can be regarded as being quite sedentary. In accordance, patchiness of weevil distribution was clearly evident in the study area. Population sizes reached maximum values after the peak of adult emergence from pupae in spring (for O. raucus) and late summer (for O. rugosostriatus), with high survival rates being evident in particular for O. raucus. This study provides for the first time data on population ecology of two weevil species, whose abundance and importance as putative insect pests in horticulture has increased over the last years.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.