Development of a sampling plan for Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) and its predator Macrolophus costalis (Hemiptera: Miridae) on tobacco

Abstract

Abstract.A tobacco field in Greece was sampled during the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons to assess the seasonal trends in densities and spatial distributions of the aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer) and its predatory mirid Macrolophus costalis (Fieber). On repeated occasions between June (just after the transplantation) and September (just before harvest), 20 tobacco leaves (10 from the upper and 10 from the lower plant part) were taken from randomly chosen plants. These leaves were sampled for aphids and mirids. In both years, the highest aphid densities were recorded during July and August, while aphid numbers were low in September. In contrast, the majority of M. costalis individuals were found during September when aphid numbers were low. Significantly more M. persicae individuals were found in the upper part of the plants, whereas significantly more M. costalis individuals were found in the lower part of the plants. As indicated by Taylor's Power Law estimates, both species were aggregated in their spatial distributions among sampling units (leaves). Wilson and Room's model, based on the Taylor's estimates, was used to calculate the mean number of aphids and mirids, from the proportion of sampling units (leaves) that had > 0 individuals of each species. This model provided a satisfactory fit of the data for both the aphid and the mirid. In addition, Wilson and Room's model was successfully used to predict the mean number of aphids and mirids in a series of samples that were carried out in the same area between June and September 2003 for model validation. Finally, equations are given for the calculation of precision in estimating the mean number of aphids or mirids per sampling unit, and the required sample size for a given level of precision.

Dispersion pattern and fixed precision sequential sampling of Sitobion avenae (Fabricus) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in wheat fields of Badjgah (Fars province) in Iran

“…This result corroborates the previous finding by Eliot & Kieckhefer (1987), who showed that Taylor's Power Law showed the spatial distribution of S. avenae, Rhopalosiphum padi, R. maidis and Schizaphis graminum better than Iwao. In addition, other results similar to ours were reported by previous studies (Dean & Luring, 1970;Feng & Nowierski, 1992;Burgio et al, 1995;Elliot & Kieckhefer, 1987;Athanassiou et al, 2005;Kavallieratos et al, 2002Kavallieratos et al, , 2005Fievet et al, 2007;Tomanovic et al, 2008a;Afshari & Dastranj, 2010), on other aphid species, S. avenae, R. padi, R. maidis and Schizaphis graminum, Metopolophium dirhodum, D. noxia and Myzus persicae.…”

Feeding location affects demographic performance of cabbage aphids on winter canola

“…Feeding location has been reported to influence both fitness as well as natural‐enemy recruitment for herbivorous arthropods in other cultivated plant systems including chili (Idris & Roff, ), cotton (Griogolli et al., ), alfalfa (Berberet et al., ), tobacco (Athanassiou et al., ; Kavallieratos et al., ), sunflowers (Pekar, ), and other brassica crops, including Brassica nigra (L.) W.D.J. Koch (Smallegange et al., ).…”

Sampling plans for aphids and their parasitoids in blueberry fields in Argentina

“…Presence-absence and enumerative sampling plans have been developed for various aphids and their predators (Feng et al 1993;Trumper and Gyenge 1998;Hodgson et al 2004;Athanassiou et al 2005), lepidopteran leafminers (Hamilton et al 2004), whiteflies (Naranjo et al 1996), mites (Nachman 1984; , among others. Sampling plans for estimating parasitized aphid densities are very important in order to evaluate the mortality caused by parasitoids; however, sampling plans for estimating mummified aphids' density are not very common (Giles et al 2003).…”