Studies of the Mexican bean beetle in the southeast /

Life Tables and Larval Dispersal of Mexican Bean Beetle (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) on Dry Bean in the High Plains

“…The list of natural enemies of the Mexican bean beetle is considerable, but early workers found little inßuence on Mexican bean beetle population dynamics (Howard andEnglish 1924, Howard andLandis 1936). Despite some positive results using the parasite Pediobius foveolatus (Crawford) (Angalet al 1968), the parasites could not survive the winter in the Þeld, and maintenance in laboratory was required during the winter (Stevens et al 1975).…”

“…P. foveolatus has been used in an ongoing biological control program for Mexican bean beetle in some soybean growing regions of the eastern United States (Edwards et al 1994). Various potential predators of Mexican bean beetle also have been recognized in soybean (Howard and English 1924, Barry 1973, Shepard et al 1974). …”

Mexican bean beetles mate successfully in diapause

“…301 Female fitness would therefore be enhanced by mating in the autumn as long as the sperm had good viability over the winter and sperm storage did not reduce survivorship of the females. In addition to the evidence provided in this paper concerning viability of sperm through cold conditions, Howard and English [16] noted that diapause females from the Southeast contained sperm and that they produced viable eggs. (These authors did not consider the possibility that diapause males might contain sperm and mate.)…”

“…It is interesting that these two species do not form large overwintering aggregations. S. punctillum hibernates in solitary fashion as does the Mexican bean beetle (except at very high densities) [16,17]. C. septempunctata is 'highly variable as to the choice of dormancy sites, to the size of aggregations, and to the onset and end of dormancy' [18].…”

Spatial and Probability Distribution of Mexican Bean Beetle (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) Egg Mass Populations in Dry Bean

“…Mexican bean beetle females lay clusters of eggs with Ϸ40 Ð 60 eggs per cluster (Howard 1924). Because eggs are laid in masses and larvae do not greatly disperse (Barrigossi 1997), larvae and young adults may have an aggregated distribution.…”