Quantifying inter-field movements of the western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgiferaLeConte) — A Central European field study

Abstract

Dispersal plays a key role in the adaptation of species. It has been suggested that even in a stable and predictable environment, it is essential for any given population to "send" a certain portion of its offspring to disperse (referred as evolutionary stable dispersal rate). Although the literature on the flight behaviour of one of the major maize pests, the western corn rootworm, is rich, relatively little is known about its inter-field movements under field conditions. In the present study, inter-field movement of adult beetles was observed in Central-Europe under quasi-isolated conditions of infested continuous and un-infested first year maize fields, and related to candidate predictor variables. Percent of immigrants (net percent of adults within a given population leaving their natal maize field and arriving in first-year maize) varied greatly across years and locations (0.4-93.3%, mean = 38.7%). Results of the study provided field evidence of the assumption that western corn rootworm performs density dependent inter-field movement. Independent from pest densities, it appeared that about 1/3 of an adult beetle population always leaves its natal maize field, which likely allows the species to find new food sources and oviposition sites. The distance between maize fields and the phenological status of maize influenced inter-field movements but at a much less extent than it could have been expected from laboratory research findings.

Eight principles of integrated pest management

“…8 Principle 5-Protecting honeybees is one criterion used for pesticide selection and the profits it generates, introduction of a new crop nevertheless requires careful market considerations and additional inputs in terms of knowledge and machinery (Vasileiadis et al 2013). The rotation rule is therefore applied in a flexible way, adapting it to local conditions and allowing more frequent maize crops in a rotation and wider occurrence per farm area than theoretically optimal (Levay et al 2014;Szalai et al 2014). Rotating maize to a diversity of non-maize crop species helps farmers avoid the development of variant of the Western corn rootworm that is referred to as "rotation resistant" because of its propensity to oviposit in non-maize crops.…”

Western Corn Rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) in Europe: Current Status and Sustainable Pest Management

“…Research initiatives in the observed countries aimed to identify factors affecting adult and larval populations and damage at field level in Croatia [64,66,72,102,137,139], Hungary [78,162,231], Serbia [66,79,82,104,145,148,224], Slovenia, [53,76] and Romania [52,56,61,68,85,93,[97][98][99]140].…”

Models of Diabrotica Populations: Demography, Population Genetics, Geographic Spread, and Management

“…Different models may focus on different aspects of these two behaviors. Recent studies using mark-recapture techniques in response to the introduction of DVV into Europe have provided additional data that might be useful in modeling movement of DVV [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. Estimates from all the above studies have suggested that between 24–38% of the adult DVV population engages in density-independent, long-distance dispersal.…”

“…Estimates from all the above studies have suggested that between 24–38% of the adult DVV population engages in density-independent, long-distance dispersal. Higher densities may increase the proportion of beetles engaging in long distance dispersal [ 48 ], although Naranjo [ 49 ] found a negative relationship between larval density and sustained flight behavior in a flight mill study.…”