Edaphic factors such as soil temperature and moisture influence soil-dwelling insects, whose most vulnerable stages typically are eggs and young larvae. In this study, the survival of eggs and first-instar larvae of the cabbage maggot, Delia radicum L., was measured under laboratory conditions after exposure to a range of soil temperatures and moistures. When eggs were exposed to constant temperature (20-29°C) and humidity (5-200% [wt:wt]), temperature had no significant effect on survival, whereas humidity <25% [wt:wt] caused egg mortality. The gradual exposure of eggs to high temperatures resulted in low mortality below 33°C, but <5% of eggs survived at 40°C. When first-instar larvae were exposed to constant temperature (17-29°C) and humidity (5-100% [wt:wt]), both factors as well as their interaction had a significant effect on larval survival, which was nil at 5% (wt:wt) for all temperatures but increased from 21.9 to 42.8% at 17°C and from 34.1 to 55.0% at 29°C, for soil moisture contents of 15% and 100% (wt:wt), respectively. Eggs of D. radicum are resistant to low soil moisture and high temperature conditions. Larval survival tends to increase with an increase in soil temperature and moisture. It is suggested that soil temperature be integrated into insect development simulation models instead of air temperature, to build more effective models for cabbage maggot management.

The cabbage maggot, Delia radicum L., has a bimodal pattern of emergence caused by the presence in populations of early and late-emerging genotypes that differ in their pupal development time. These genotypes could also express different egg-laying strategies. To examine oviposition patterns between genotypes and, particularly, their response to temperature, the egg-laying activity of females and egg mortality from each genotype were evaluated at temperatures from 12 to 30°C. Several criteria were used to describe the oviposition pattern: longevity of females, preoviposition period, lifetime fecundity, number of oviposition bouts, duration and number of eggs for each oviposition bout, duration of an oviposition cycle, and time interval between oviposition bouts. All criteria were similar between genotypes, except the preoviposition period and time interval between oviposition bouts. The preoviposition period was 1-4 d longer for the early emerging genotype than for the late-emerging genotype at temperatures <25°C, but similar at temperatures ≥25°C. The time interval between oviposition bouts of early emerging genotype was a few hours longer than for the late-emerging genotype at all temperatures. All oviposition pattern criteria responded to temperature, except the duration of oviposition bouts (≍6.5 d) and egg mortality (≍11%). The duration of a bout could be a compromise between oogenesis duration and the risks associated with egg deposition. According to these results, early and late-emerging genotypes express similar egg-laying strategies for all temperatures tested.