Summary 1.The honeybee Apis mellifera is currently in decline worldwide because of the combined impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder and the Varroa destructor mite. In order to gain a balanced perspective of the importance of both wild and managed pollination services, it is essential to compare these services directly, a priori, within a cropping landscape. This process will determine the capacity of other flower visitors to act as honeybee replacements. 2. In a highly modified New Zealand agricultural landscape, we compared the pollination services provided by managed honeybees to unmanaged pollinator taxa (including flies) within a Brassica rapa var. chinensis mass flowering crop. 3. We evaluate overall pollinator effectiveness by separating the pollination service into two components: efficiency (i.e. per visit pollen deposition) and visit rate (i.e. pollinator abundance per available flower and the number of flower visits per minute). 4. We observed 31 species attending flowers of B. rapa. In addition to A. mellifera, seven insect species visited flowers frequently. These were three other bees (Lasioglossum sordidum, Bombus terrestris and Leioproctus sp.) and four flies (Dilophus nigrostigma, Melanostoma fasciatum, Melangyna novae-zelandiae and Eristalis tenax). 5. Two bee species, Bombus terrestris and Leioproctus sp. and one fly, Eristalis tenax were as efficient as the honeybee and as effective (in terms of rate of flower visitation). A higher honeybee abundance, however, resulted in it being the more effective pollinator overall. 6. Synthesis and applications. Alternative land management practices that increase the population sizes of unmanaged pollinator taxa to levels resulting in visitation frequencies as high as A. mellifera, have the potential to replace services provided by the honeybee. This will require a thorough investigation of each taxon's intrinsic biology and a change in land management practices to ensure year round refuge, feeding, nesting and other resource requirements of pollinator taxa are met.

The tomato potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli (Sulc)) probably invaded New Zealand in the summer of 200506 The first authenticated records from May to June 2006 indicated that it was widely distributed in the Auckland area with a further record from Taupo so that no attempt was made to eradicate it By April 2009 records indicated that it had spread throughout much of New Zealand Its spread within New Zealand is likely to be from a combination of natural and human mediated dispersal The psyllid and the liberibacter it transmits will provide a serious challenge to the ongoing development of Integrated Pest Management in greenhouse crops (especially tomato and capsicum) outdoor tomatoes and potatoes The economic impact of this insect and disease in the 4 years it has been in New Zealand has been in millions of dollars in terms of increased management costs crop losses and loss of export markets

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The behavioural responses of flying western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) to the colour yellow and the odour anisaldehyde were examined. In a wind tunnel, upwind flight by female thrips was common in an airflow of 0.11 m s −1 but was impeded at 0.22 m s −1 . In the absence of anisaldehyde, flying female thrips exhibited an oriented response towards a yellow cue in the wind tunnel at a wind speed of 0.11 m s −1 . The main response of females to anisaldehyde in the wind tunnel was flight inhibition. There was no evidence of an odour-induced visual response, an odour-induced anemotactic response or chemotaxis by female thrips to anisaldehyde in wind tunnel bioassays, but chemokinesis was implicated. With a matrix of yellow or black water traps with and without anisaldehyde in a greenhouse sweet pepper crop, yellow traps with anisaldehyde caught more thrips adults than yellow traps without anisaldehyde, black traps with anisaldehyde and black traps without anisaldehyde (1.3, 28 and 721 times for males respectively and 2.4, 9 and 117 times for females, respectively). Differences between respective traps were statistically significant in almost all cases. Trapping experiments using a centre-baited trap design to reduce the interaction of anisaldehyde between baited and unbaited traps were undertaken in tomato and sweet pepper greenhouse crops. When the spatial distribution of the thrips adult population within the greenhouse was taken into account, yellow water traps with anisaldehyde caught between 11 and 15 times more female and 3 and 20 times more male F. occidentalis adults than yellow traps without anisaldehyde.

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Thrips (Thysanoptera) are small insects that can cause huge problems in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry through feeding and the transmission of plant viruses. They produce a rich chemical diversity of pheromones and allomones and also respond to a broad range of semiochemicals from plants. These semiochemicals offer many opportunities to develop new approaches to pest management. Aggregation pheromones and plant-derived semiochemicals are already available in commercial products. We review these semiochemicals and consider how we can move away from using them mainly for monitoring to using them for control. We still know very little about the behavioral responses of thrips to semiochemicals, and we show that research in this area is needed to improve the use of semiochemicals in pest management. We also propose that thrips should be used as a model system for semiochemically mediated behaviors of small insects that have limited ability to fly upwind.

Understanding the role of unmanaged arthropod flower visitors as crop pollinators is critical if robust and reliable long‐term alternatives are to be found for honey bee pollination. However, data on pollinator assemblages can be scant. Field observation of crop flower visitors is a common data collection technique but it can be inadequate for species identification and is labour‐intensive if used across many sites. Trapping may reduce this problem, but trap performance and sampling consistency over long distances (sites separated by >100 km) are rarely examined. Window traps were designed to collect flower‐visiting arthropods from peak‐flowering onion (Allium cepa) and pak choi (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) fields across several regions throughout New Zealand. Trap efficacy was evaluated by comparing trapped samples with observations of flower visiting arthropods during the same trapping period, from dawn (6:00 to 7:00 hours) through to dusk (20:00–21:00 hours) at the same locations. Similar types of larger arthropods (length ≥3 mm) were observed and trapped within both crops, with the hymenopteran genera Apidae, Colletidae and Halictidae and the dipteran families Syrphidae, Calliphoridae, Anthomyiidae, Stratiomyidae, Sarcophagidae, Bibionidae, Tachinidae and Muscidae the most commonly recorded. The total counts of these taxa across fields were strongly correlated between the two methods; however, the ratio of trapped to observed individuals could vary greatly between taxa. Trapping allowed more arthropods to be identified to the species level and also helped record more small arthropods (body length <3 mm) when compared with observation. Window traps can be effective for assessing the relative diversity of flower visitor assemblages and the abundance of specific taxa in specific cropping systems at the regional scale, but variation in trap efficiency between arthropod taxa must be assessed for a true measure of assemblage composition.

The life history of New Zealand flower thrips (Thrips obscuratus (Crawford), Thysanoptera: Thripidae) was studied using a simple laboratory rearing method. The effects of temperature and diet on oviposition rate and development time were examined. Oviposition rate increased with increasing temperature between 10°C and 25°C. Development time for individual instars and for total development decreased with increasing temperature between 10°C and 27°C. Total development time ranged from 50 days at 10°C (female) to 10 days at 27°C (male). The relationship between temperature and development rate was expressed as a straight line such that lower thresholds of development of between 4.2°C and 6.3°C were established for life stages. Adult lifespan increased with decreasing temperature between 10°C and 25°C and females lived longer than males. At 10°C and 25°C females lived for an average of 34 and 3 weeks respectively. Thrips supplied with pollen exhibited highest and sustained levels of egg production in comparison to other diets. Larval mortality was lowest and development time fastest on diets of pollen and sucrose or fruit juice in comparison to other plant tissues. Larval development time was similar on four species of pollen.