The life history of the white grub Dasylepida sp. was surveyed in a sugarcane field in Miyako Is., Okinawa, Japan. Adult flights were observed from early February to mid-March in 2001. Adults commenced flight just after sunset (at around 18:30) and mated. Sampling from the pots placed in the field on 19 April yielded 41.8% eggs and 58.2% first stadium larvae. Larvae sampled on 20 June, 2000 were found to consist of 33.3% and 66.7% of the first and second stadium larvae, respectively. On 22 August, 87.5% of larvae were second stadium and the remainder (12.5%) were third stadium larvae. The proportion of third stadium larvae increased and attained 100% by 30 November. In an excavation survey on 26 November, 2001, 11 adults (three females and eight males) and five pupae were found in the soil at a depth of around 45 cm. Pupae were found in the tunnel cavities. We believe that adults remain in the tunnels until the next February. In the rearing experiments at 25°C in the laboratory, the egg period was 23.6 d and the larval periods of the first, second and third stadia were 80.9, 91.8 and 335.8 d, respectively. These facts indicated that Dasylepida sp. has a two-year life cycle.
Although in mark‐recapture experiments traps are useful to estimate the dispersal distance of organisms, they cause a dilemma that may be called a kind of Heisenberg effect: a large number of traps should be placed to yield a precise estimate of mean dispersal distance, while these traps shorten the mean dispersal distance itself by intercepting organisms that should have dispersed for further distances. We propose a procedure to solve this dilemma by placing traps uniformly in a lattice pattern, and by assuming a random movement and a constant rate of settlement for organisms. We applied this procedure to estimate the dispersal distance of the sugarcane wireworm Melanotus okinawensis Ohira (Coleoptera: Elateridae). The estimated mean dispersal distance was 143.8 m. Through the use of a conventional method of estimation, the mean dispersal distance was estimated to be 118.1 m. Thus, it was shown that the conventional estimate of dispersal distance was 18% smaller than the corrected estimate in our experiment.
The cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene in mitochondrial DNA of 53 larvae of Contarinia maculipennis Felt from flower buds of various host plants, collected from Hawaii, Japan and Thailand was analysed. Monophyly of the clade including C. maculipennis from Hawaii, Thailand and Japan was supported. There was no sequential variation within the specimens from Hawaii and Japan, which differed from one another by 6 bp (1.37%). Three haplotypes were recognized in specimens from Thailand but differences from Hawaiian and Japanese specimens were small. Overall, there were no differences in the 146 deduced amino acid residues. It is therefore concluded that C. maculipennis is a polyphagous species that can develop on plant hosts representing at least seven botanical families. This pest of Dendrobium flower buds in glasshouses is considered to have entered Hawaii, Florida and Japan from Southeast Asia, and was recently intercepted in the Netherlands. Infestations have established and spread in orchid glasshouses, causing concern about the possibility of more extensive damage to orchids and to crops, such as bitter gourd, grown in close proximity to orchid glasshouses in Japan. The potential usefulness of DNA analysis in determining host plant ranges of morphologically identical cecidomyiid species that are currently identified solely on differences of host plant is emphasized.
Abstract:The location and preference of adult Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, a vector of the citrus huanglongbing (greening disease) Liberobacter asiaticum, on two host plants, Murraya exotica L. and Citrus depressa Hayata, were investigated in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. While the adults of D. citri were found on all parts of the C. depressa tree and on the M. exotica tree, all of the D. citri eggs and most of the nymphs and adults were found on young shoots and young leaves. We suggest that it is possible to save labor in the investigation and control of the psyllid by attentively checking the young shoots of M. exotica. Investigation on the distribution of D. citri adults on M. exotica plantlets hung upside down in a container showed that although no difference was found between frequencies of males on young leaves and mature leaves, significantly more females were found on the apical buds, suggesting that females have a preference for this part of the tree.
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