Abstract
Predation of Lepidoptera caterpillars - including agricultural pest species - is one of the main ways through which social wasps gather proteinaceous resources. The presence of social wasps was sampled through active search and bait traps through a sugarcane culture cycle, totaling 12 months. Our aim was to record the presence of these insects during the sugarcane development cycle in order to obtain data to support alternative pest control strategies. A total of 1091 individuals in seven genera and 20 species of social wasps were collected, including the swarm-founding Agelaia vicina and Polybia sericea (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Social wasp richness and abundance were not correlated with climatic variables (temperature, humidity and precipitation). However, richness was negatively correlated to the sugarcane plants’ height (r= -0.4360, p= 0.05). The presence of social wasps during the plant’s cycle shows their potential as predators in sugarcane culture pest management.
Highlights
Insect pests in sugarcane cultures have been controlled with phytosanitary products which, necessary to ensure productivity, may reduce biological diversity and environmental quality, making necessary the search for methods that are less aggressive towards the environment and the human health (Rodrigues, 2004)
Brazil is the greatest worldwide producer of sugarcane with approximately nine million cultivated hectares that produce over 607 million tons per year, with Minas Gerais being one of the most productive states in the Southeast region (UNICA, 2017)
A total of 1,091 social wasps were captured from 20 species in seven genera, with 861 individuals belonging to Agelaia vicina
Summary
Insect pests in sugarcane cultures have been controlled with phytosanitary products which, necessary to ensure productivity, may reduce biological diversity and environmental quality, making necessary the search for methods that are less aggressive towards the environment and the human health (Rodrigues, 2004). Social wasps were reported as predators of herbivores in cultivated plants such as jaboticaba (De Souza et al, 2010), guava tree (Brugger et al, 2011), Spanish prune (Prezoto & Braga, 2013), mango (Barbosa et al, 2014) and in forest plantations (Elisei et al, 2010; De Souza et al, 2012) These insects show a generalist and opportunistic alimentary behavior in the search for carbohydrates and proteinaceous resources used in larvae nutrition (Hunt, 2007; Elisei et al, 2010; Clemente et al, 2012). They prey on sugarcane pest insects such as Diatraea saccharalis (Fabricius, 1794) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), Mocis latipes (Guen, 1852) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith, 1797) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and are important for integrated pest management programs (Giannotti et al, 1995; Prezoto et al, 2008; Prezoto et al, 2016)
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