As part of a broad agroecological project, spiders were collected in different blocks of a 6 ha experimental !PM apple orchard at Kecskemet-Szarkas, Hungary, in 1994. The orchard was divided into six blocks receiving different treatments: the two "traditional" blocks were treated with conventional intensive spraying; the two "!PM" blocks were managed under an integrated pest management scheme. In the "IPM+flowers" blocks the same !PM scheme was applied and, additionally, flowering herbs were sown between tree rows. Spiders were collected by branch beating from the foliage of apple trees in all blocks, and in the IPM+flowers blocks separately from herbaceous plants by shaking. The total catch of spiders represented at least 28 species (88% of all spiders were immature). The total number of spiders caught was not significantly different between treatment blocks. Cluster analysis revealed that spider family composition was the most similar between the canopies of the various !PM blocks, the canopy fauna of the traditional blocks was somewhat different from these, while family composition of the herbaceous layer was markedly different from that of the canopy stratum in any of the blocks. Within the IPM+flowers block, species similarity was moderate between the canopy and the herbs; Oxyopidae represented a common element in both strata. The present study indicated that the applied pest management schemes did not result in any significant difference in the spider assemblage of the treatment blocks. Spiders of the herbaceous layer were of different composition, and there is little evidence that adding vegetation to the herb layer would increase spider abundance on the trees. Causative factors of this phenomenon, however, should be examined in more detail with special reference to the availability of alternative prey and dispersal from neighbouring habitats.
The impacts of weather on the damages caused by the lucerne seed chalcid (Bruchophagus roddi Guss.), the lucerne seed weevil (Tychius flavus Beck.), as well as by mirids (mainly Adelphocoris lineolatus Goeze, Ly u~ rugulipennis Popp., Polymerus vulneratus Panz.) and nutritional deficiencies manifested in shrivefled seeds were studied in Hungary. Data for the study were provided by examination of pod samples collected from 183 fields in 1964, regular collection of insects by sweep netting and sampling pods on 8 fields between 1969-1972, as well as experiments performed in 1978 and 1987. Seed damage data were compared with characteristics of weather variables of various time periods preceding seed ripening. Forty correlations were studied.Close correlations were found. The damages caused both by Bruchophagus and Tychius increased with decreasing hydrothermic quotient (= HTQ) (i.e. decreasing amount of precipitation) in the vegetation period of both the previous and the given year as well as in the period of oviposition on the seed crop in the year in question, with decreasing amount of precipitation in Sept.-Nov. and Febr.-May, and with failure of regrowing of the seed lucerne stand. Bruchophagus and Tychius damage grew with high (12.X) and medium numbers (10-12.5) of consecutive days with no precipitation in August of the previous year, resp., and similarly, the damage by Tychius at medium numbers (5-11) of "severe" days (min. temp. at least -10°C) with no snow cover. The ratio of shrivelled seeds increased with increasin HTQ in the vegetation periods of the previous year and the year in question, with decreasing numger (lo>) of consecutive days with no precipitation in the previous August, and with increasing amount (300< mm) of precipitation in autumn and spring. Additionally, both markedly high and low values of the HTQ in the period of ripening of pods in the year in question resulted in increase of ratio of shrivelled seeds. The correlations between weather variables of earlier time periods and seed damages may be used for forecasting and preventing damages. U.S.
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