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STUDIES OF WIREWORM POPULATION III. SOME EFFECTS OF CULTIVATION
Author(s) -
SALT GEORGE,
HOLLICK F. S. J.
Publication year - 1949
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1949.tb06407.x
Subject(s) - biology , population , pasture , agronomy , larva , arable land , population density , population size , ecology , agriculture , demography , sociology
The number of wireworms in successive collections from five Cambridgeshire fields declined during the first year of cultivation to 25 % of the number present before the fields were ploughed from old grass. The decline in numbers was accompanied by a change in the composition of the wireworm population; the marked inverse correlation between number and size of larvae, which held for the wireworm populations under grass, progressively altered towards uniform numbers of the different size‐groups. The incidence of natural control on the different sizes of larvae was obscured by their growth, and more medium‐sized and large larvae were lost than would appear from the population‐size histograms. Three groups of factors are considered as contributing to the decline in numbers after ploughing. Direct observation showed that many wireworms were destroyed in the actual process of cultivation. Evidence was insufficient to prove that the physical condition of cultivated soil adversely affects the number of wireworms. Comparison of the smaller size‐groups in pasture and in the cultivated fields showed that the wireworm population failed to replenish itself under arable conditions.