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Ostrinia nubilalis (Hb.) (Lep., Pyralidae) on sweet corn: relationship between adults caught in multibaited traps and ear damages
Author(s) -
Maini S.,
Burgio G.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of applied entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.795
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1439-0418
pISSN - 0931-2048
DOI - 10.1046/j.1439-0418.1999.00331.x
Subject(s) - ostrinia , pyralidae , european corn borer , biology , pheromone trap , kairomone , larva , pest analysis , infestation , crop , economic threshold , horticulture , lepidoptera genitalia , field corn , toxicology , agronomy , zoology , botany , zea mays , ecology , predation
Infestation with Ostrinia nubilalis (Hb.), the European corn borer (ECB) can be detected by using different sampling techniques in the field and statistical models aimed to assess the development time of ECB larvae and crop damage. An appropriate monitoring for this polyphagous species to show a relationship between the kind of sampling or a model and the subsequent damage in a particular crop, is very difficult. Sex pheromone traps, generally, are also not reliable for monitoring ECB. The possibility of employing new types of traps baited with a sex pheromone and a maize kairomone, the phenylacetaldheyde (PAA) (multibaited traps) was investigated. In sweet corn, trapping experiments were conducted over a 2‐year period with two kinds of cone traps (XLa and XLb) set up at the borders of fields (four replicates). ECB attacks of first and second generation larvae were evaluated in the corn ears as a percentage of damage and using a damage index (DI). A correlation was found between the number of females caught per trap and either the percentage of damaged ears (r = 0.73 for XLa; r = 0.65 for XLb) and the DI (r = 70 for XLa; r = 0.60 for XLb). Conversely, the number of males caught per trap was not correlated with ECB larval damage. A linear model of multiple correlation fitted to the data of simultaneous captures of males and females showed that the coefficients were not higher than simple correlation. The correlation coefficients obtained by fitting a curvilinear response surface were higher (r = 0.81 for XLa and r = 0.84 for XLb, respectively, related to percentage of damaged ears; r = 0.79 for XLa and r = 0.76 for XLb, respectively, related to DI) thus indicating that the simultaneous counting of males and females in cone traps can be an efficient and simple monitoring tool.