The incidence of insect pests and their Arthropod predators in 24 Canterbury white clover seed crops

Authors

  • Neil Schroeder
  • Peter Clifford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33584/rps.6.1995.3372

Abstract

Insect pests and their predators were sampled in Canterbury white clover crops during the 1994-95 season. Bluegreen aphid and potato mirids occurred early (late October to mid-November) during the season and were a potential cause of major injury to developing flowerheads. Australian crop mirid, wheat bug, brown shield bug, and spittle bugs occurred later in the season during January and were more likely to affect seed fill and resultant seed quality. Bluegreen aphids reached an overall maximum number of 800 per m2 during early December, while potato mirid nymphs and adults were found in significantly (P<0.001) higher numbers in the field edges reaching maximum numbers of 40 and 5.7 per m2 in early December and mid-December, respectively. Of the five species of arthropod predators collected, lacewing larvae and ladybird adult and larvae numbers were positively (P<0.01, 0.001, 0.05, respectively) correlated to bluegreen aphid numbers. Selective insecticides should be applied to conserve arthropod predator populations, while controlling hemipteran pest numbers. Keywords: bluegreen aphid, hemipteran, lacewing, ladybird, pests, potato mirid, predators, seed production, white clover

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Published

1996-01-01

Issue

Vol. 6 (1995): White Clover: NZ's Competitive Edge

Section

Past volumes

License

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Rights granted to the New Zealand Grassland Association through this agreement are non-exclusive. You are free to publish the work(s) elsewhere and no ownership is assumed by the NZGA when storing or curating an electronic version of the work(s). The author(s) will receive no monetary return from the Association for the use of material contained in the manuscript. If I am one of several co-authors, I hereby confirm that I am authorized by my co-authors to grant this Licence as their agent on their behalf. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes the rights to supply the article in electronic and online forms and systems.