Abstract
A two-year study was conducted in South Carolina wheat (Triticum aestivum L. (Poales: Poaceae)) fields to describe spatial and temporal dynamics of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), which were sampled weekly with sweep nets. In 2010, the main phytophagous stink bugs caught in a grid sampling plan across two fields were the brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say), the rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax (F.), the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (L.), and the red shouldered stink bug, Thyanta custator (F.), for both adults and nymphs. In 2011, the main phytophagous stink bugs were E. servus, O. pugnax, N. viridula, and T. custator across two fields. Adult stink bug counts adjacent to fallow fields were 2.1-fold greater for all species combined compared with counts adjacent to woods. Spatial Analysis by Distance IndicEs (SADIE) indicated significant aggregation for 35% of analyses for adults and nymph stink bugs at each sampling date. As a measure of spatial and temporal stability, positive SADIE association indices among sampling dates recorded 11, 36, 43, and 16% of analyses for adult E. servus and 7, 50, 50, and 14% for adult O. pugnax in fields A, B, C, and D, respectively. Adult and nymph stink bugs were spatially associated within wheat fields based on SADIE association indices. Seasonal counts of stink bugs were spatially associated with spike counts at least once for each species across the four fields. Future work may investigate practices to reduce stink bug buildup on wheat in the spring and movement to susceptible crops such as corn, Zea mays L.
Highlights
The distributions of insect populations are generally characterized by spatial heterogeneity (Leibhold et al 1993)
In 2010, most phytophagous stink bugs caught in the grid-sampling plan across two fields included E. servus (43.1%, 68.8%), O. pugnax (40.7%, 17.8%), N. viridula (10.4%, 6.7%), and T. custator (5.7%, 6.7%), for adults and nymphs, respectively
Averaging over locations at the interior vs. the edge of the field, this study showed greater densities across sampling dates along the edge of fields only for all species combined, with strong trends for N. viridula adults and T. custator nymphs
Summary
The distributions of insect populations are generally characterized by spatial heterogeneity (Leibhold et al 1993). The SADIE association tool can be used to describe spatial associations between two data sets that shared the same locations (Perry and Dixon 2002), such as the same species taken at different times, two different species sampled together, a species and an environmental variable or crop injury expressed as counts (Thomas et al 2001; Cocu et al 2005; Reay-Jones et al 2010; Reay-Jones 2012). Understanding the spatial dynamics of insect pests of crops can assist in developing ecologically based management practices. Environmental parameters may be used to predict pest populations (Cocu et al 2005; Díaz et al 2010), which can assist in improving sampling plans or targeting control tactics
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