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Comparative flight performance of the seasonal morphs of the cabbage whitefly, Aleyrodes brassicae (Wlk.), in the laboratory
Author(s) -
IHEAGWAM EMMANUEL UCHE
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
ecological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.865
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1365-2311
pISSN - 0307-6946
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2311.1977.tb00890.x
Subject(s) - climbing , climb , biology , descent (aeronautics) , ecology , meteorology , aerospace engineering , physics , engineering
. 1. The flight capacity of the summer (non‐diapausing) and the winter (diapausing) females of A.brassicae was assessed in terms of the climbing flight directed phototactically toward an overhead source of light in a laboratory flight chamber. 2. The summer morph took off only when prodded and its flight bouts were much briefer than those of the winter morph. 3. Immediately on take‐off, the summer morph sank in flight and was negatively phototactic in the horizontal plane whereas the winter morph climbed on take‐off, being positively phototactic both vertically and horizontally. 4. Three phases of behaviour during flight were observed in the winter morph: a short period of widely fluctuating rate of climb, a long ‘cruising’ phase of steady climbing, and a final erratic phase when the rate of climb had fallen to and below zero. 5. In general, the mean rate of climb was significantly higher on re‐take‐off after a landing than immediately before the landing.