Aphid‐parasitoid interactions in a winter cereal crop: field trials involving insecticide application

Abstract

AbstractLarge scale field trials were conducted to investigate aphid‐parasitoid interactions in winter wheat following spring applications of contact or systemic insecticides. Percentage parasitism was also investigated in the dominant aphid species using acrylamide‐gel electrophoretic methods. Sitobion avenae (F.) Metopolophium dirhodum (Walk.) and Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) were the commonest aphids and showed typical patterns of abundance through the growing season. Six parasitoid species were found: Aphidius rhopalosiphi de St.‐Per., A. ervi Hal., A. picipes (Nees) and Praon volucre (Hal.) being the most common primary parasitoids that attack the three main aphid species. The present work demonstrated a degree of temporal separation of these dominant cereal aphid parasitoid species which has rarely been documented. There was also evidence of earlier female activity in the crop in four of the six species. Parasitoid populations increased into June and peaked in July, coinciding with and continuing after peak aphid populations, before rapidly declining into August.Both contact and systemic insecticides sprayed in spring produced only a slight initial trend of suppression of aphid populations compared to control treatments; no influence on late summer populations was found. However, significant between‐field differences occurred. Neither contact nor systemic insecticides had any effect on population sizes, species composition or life history of aphid parasitoids (Braconidae; Aphidiinae, Aphelinidae) compared to control plots in the present study. Percentage parasitism was likewise unaffected by insecticides and reached a peak, based on electrophoretic methods, of 40% at peak aphid densities at the end of June. Estimates of parasitism based on presence of mummies were up to 10 times lower.Possible reasons for the lack of effect of insecticide application in the present study include timing of application (prior to main immigration period of aphids and parasitoids), mobility of populations and insecticide‐induced stimulation of reproduction in aphids.