One-, 2- and 3-day-old two-spotted spider mite eggs were treated with increasing doses of gamma radiation ranging from 0-280 Gy. Percent egg hatch decreased as radiation increased for each age group; however, older eggs required higher doses of radiation to prevent egg hatch than did younger eggs. Based on the regression lines for 1-, 2- and 3-day-old eggs, the best estimates of the doses of radiation that would prevent 100% of the eggs from hatching were 43.6 Gy, 55.1 Gy and in excess of 280 Gy, respectively. In general, irradiating spider mite eggs had no significant effect on their acceptability as prey by females of the predatory mite Neoseiulus californicus McGregor, except for 1-day-old eggs treated at 240 Gy. Female N. californicus consumed 50-75% fewer of these eggs than they did eggs of other treatments, in both no-choice and choice experiments.

Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is renown for its control of invasive cacti (Opuntia spp.). Its accidental arrival in Florida and its rapidly expanding range along the Gulf coast pose an imminent threat to native Opuntia spp., especially in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Adequate survey techniques are crucial in order to delineate the rate of spread of this invasive species. Virgin female-baited sticky traps have been effective in detecting C. cactorum adult males in areas where visual surveys failed to detect larval damage. However, the use of fertile females in traps placed beyond the currently infested area is discouraged because an escaped fertile female might establish a breeding population and expand the infested area. In this study we compare the attractiveness and the longevity of fertile and irradiated (sterile) females deployed as bait in traps. Traps baited with females sterilized with gamma radiation were as effective as traps baited with unirradiated (fertile) females in detecting populations of feral C. cactorum male moths.

Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg) has become an invasive pest of Opuntia spp. along the coastal areas of southeastern United States from the panhandle of Florida to South Carolina. Spread of this insect into cactus dominated natural areas of the United States and Mexico and into agricultural opuntia fields of Mexico is raising concerns within international governments and conservation organizations. Interest is growing in using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) to manage C. cactorum populations. Information on courtship and mating behaviors of this insect is important in the development and application of SIT. We conducted mating table studies and determined that this moth exhibits simple rather than elaborate mating behaviors and that courtship and mating take place briefly during morning twilight. Typically, females initiate calling, males respond to females, and copulation are complete before sunrise. Successfully mated females attract males within a short period (mean of 5.2 min), while unsuccessful females continue calling for about 40 minutes. Mating pairs remain in copula for a mean of 31.8 min. Generally, mated females are busy ovipositing the first few nights after mating, not exhibiting additional mating behaviors. A release of marked males revealed that males stay near the release site and can be recovered and identified for subsequent population estimate studies. This study on courtship/mating behavior is helpful to the ongoing C. cactorum research to develop a successful SIT program, identify the female calling pheromone, improve monitoring traps, and develop a technique to estimate adult moth population abundance.

Avocado fruit can be severely damaged by Scirtothrips perseae (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) in southern California. Scirtothrips perseae is found on leaves and fruit, but its prevalence on one versus the other substrate has not been documented. In this study, the occurrence and infestation levels of S. perseae on avocado leaves and fruit during late spring and summer were compared at three sites in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, California, from 1998-2000. In all sites and years, adult and larval S. perseae were more abundant on young leaves than on small fruit from early to mid June. After leaves matured and hardened with increasing temperatures from late June through August, overall S. perseae populations generally declined. However, populations became proportionally higher on fruit than on leaves compared with earlier in the season. This usually resulted in equal numbers on the two substrates and sometimes in higher numbers on fruit late in the season. The change in relative S. perseae abundance on leaves and fruit between pre- and post-leaf hardening indicates control efforts need to be made shortly before leaves harden and become unsuitable for S. perseae feeding and oviposition or shortly after the first thrips move onto fruit.

The attraction of colored plasticized corrugated boards covered with adhesive to trap adult stable flies was investigated on Florida panhandle beaches. Colors consisted of blue, red, orange, and three types of white (horizontal ribbed, vertical ribbed, or opaque). Boards measured 67.3 cm (length) by 31.7 cm (height) and were placed on slotted wooden stakes, 30 m apart, along a linear transect. Fly collections were significantly (P < 0.05) greater on blue boards than on orange and white but there was no difference between red and blue boards. Spectral reflectance of boards peaked at 503 nm for blue, 638 nm for red, while orange and the 3 types of white boards peaked at about 630 nm. Blue boards exhibited the lowest reflective intensity when compared with the rest of the colors. Because stable flies were collected from all boards it is surmised that the boards provided leeward surfaces on which to land or remain perched in the windy beach environment. Significantly more flies were collected from the leeward side of boards compared with the windward side. Moreover, the boards may have provided vertical platforms for adult stable fly assembly, thermoregulation, and/or mating. Adhesive-treated corrugated plasticized boards may be a suitable method for luring stable flies away from human or animal hosts in recreation areas to reduce annoyance from biting pests.

The visual response of Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) and insects in the genus Lygocoris to pink and white sticky traps was evaluated in a peach orchard. Pink traps significantly captured more tarnished plant bugs. For the entire season, the mean (±S.E)number of L. lineolaris per trap was 1.29 ± 0.064 for pink traps and 0.72 ± 0.067 for white traps. In contrast, both trap colors performed similarly in their average timing of capture and ability to track the occurrence of fruit injuries. Unlike L. lineolaris, few Lygocoris insects were captured and no difference was detected between captures from each trap color.

Cultures of the endoparasitoid Lysiphlebus testaceipes Cresson (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae) on the brown citrus aphid, Toxoptera citricida Kirkaldy (Homoptera: Aphididae), previously have been reported to be difficult to establish. In this study, L. testaceipes colonies were initiated from parasitized brown citrus aphids obtained from field-collected citrus foliage in Florida and successfully maintained for >25 generations in the laboratory. To enhance colony rearing methods, several aspects of the parasitoid’s biology were examined. An evaluation of foraging by single or multiple females determined that the presence of multiple females did not influence mean progeny yield per female. However, the mean number of progeny produced by mature (25-49 and 49-73 h) L. testaceipes females was higher than that produced by younger (1-25 h) females over a 24-h period. In all three parasitoid age classes, each reared on second-, third- or fourth-instar aphid hosts, significantly more mummies containing L. testaceipes formed on a paper coffee filter covering the soil surface compared to the number of mummies formed on citrus foliage. Mummy formation off foliage has not been reported for this aphid-parasitoid complex in citrus. Mated females of L. testaceipes with access to honey and water and without access to aphids or honeydew lived longer than females that had access to aphid hosts and honeydew. These data provide novel findings on the biology of L. testaceipes when parasitizing the brown citrus citrus, particularly on mummification sites, and allowed us to develop a protocol for routine large-scale rearing of L. testaceipes on brown citrus aphids on citrus.

The cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (Fabricius), was selected as a representative stored-product beetle to test the validity of contour mapping of trap catch for pest monitoring in warehouses and retail stores. Three experiments, each replicated 5 times, were conducted in a 3.2 × 9.0-m aluminum shed. Each experiment involved releasing beetles at a single point and recording the numbers captured after 6, 24, and 48 h in each of 14 baited pitfall traps distributed over the floor of the shed. The experiments differed only with respect to the point of release. Beetles were released passively from rearing boxes placed at one of 3 release points, and consecutive contour maps of trap catch tracked their dispersal from each point. As the beetles dispersed and total trap catch increased, the outlying traps captured increasingly more insects, but cumulative trap catch remained highest near the release points. The rate of capture was highest immediately after release and declined with time, rapidly at first and then more slowly until it became nearly constant. The cumulative numbers captured by any trap after 6, 24, and 48 h decreased exponentially with distance from the point of release. The observed spatial patterns of trap catch relative to sources of infestation and the inverse relationship of trap catch to distance from a source support the validity of contour mapping as a means of monitoring stored-product insects and locating foci of infestation.

The butterfly Phyciodes phaon (Edwards), the Phaon crescent, was reared in the laboratory on its host plant, Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene, at 27°C with 16:8 (L:D) photoperiod and fluorescent lighting. Eggs are laid in clusters on the underside of host leaves and hatch in about 5 days. Newly hatched larvae aggregate and feed on the underside of the leaf. Later instars disperse on the host plant and continue to feed on the leaves. Larvae develop through five instars based on head capsule, weight, and size measurements. The duration of each instar and the pupal stage were determined. Adults mate 2-3 days after emergence, and females begin laying eggs after 2 more days. The life cycle from egg to adult requires 23-31 days. The butterfly is easy to rear and mating occurs in laboratory cages under artificial lighting. The butterfly has been reared continuously in the laboratory for about 3 years with no evidence of disease in the colony.

Two molecular techniques were used to identify host strains of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) from male moths captured in pheromone-baited traps in north-central and central Florida. Moths collected in 1998 were analyzed using direct detection of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) RFLPs generated from restriction endonuclease digestion of total DNA, while moths collected in 2000 and 2001 were analyzed using a mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene PCR-RFLP marker. Both techniques could distinguish between rice and corn strain moths, however, the COI PCR-RFLP marker was more robust as indicated by a time interval experiment that showed that moths held for up to 15 days in a “bucket trap” could still be used for strain diagnosis. In a field study, our strategy gave results consistent with expectations. Rice strain moths were common in habitats with large areas of small grasses, corn strain moths were common in large areas planted to corn, and habitats with mixed large- and small-grass plantings contained both strains. Our methodology of combining pheromone traps with PCR-RFLP analysis will provide a valuable sampling system to determine the population ecology habits and strain isolating mechanisms of fall armyworm populations in numerous habitats, including overwintering areas of southern Florida.

Attractiveness of freeze-dried and reconstituted entomophage diet to hybrid fire ants (Solenopsis invicta × richteri) was investigated in choice tests using freeze-killed, crushed cricket (Acheta domestica L.) as a standard. Worker ants were strongly attracted to both crickets and reconstituted diet. Foragers collected approx. 27 times more reconstituted diet than freeze-dried diet, and collected statistically equivalent amounts of artificial diet and crickets (36.0 ± 7.0 and 26.0 ± 0.3 mg/h, respectively). Even though workers were strongly attracted to the artificial diet, all measures of colony growth (mean mass of brood, workers, and queen) were at least 30% lower in colonies fed sugar water artificial diet than in colonies fed sugar water crickets or sugar water artificial diet crickets. While this diet may have some utility as a bait for monitoring fire ants in the field, it offers no advantage over a standard diet of crickets and sugar water for rearing fire ants in the laboratory.

One of the best-known symbioses in the Neotropics is the association between ant-acacias and Pseudomyrmex ants that live in the acacia’s hollow thorns. We surveyed ants on two species of ant-acacia, Acacia cornigera (L.) and Acacia sphaerocephala Schlechtendal & Chamisso, growing outside their native range at five sites in Florida. We found eleven ant species: five native Florida ants (Brachymyrmex sp. nr. obscurior, Camponotus floridanus (Buckley), Pseudomyrmex cubaensis (Forel), Pseudomyrmex ejectus (Smith), and Pseudomyrmex elongatus (Mayr)), two Neotropical exotics (Camponotus sexguttatus (Fabr.) and Pseudomyrmex gracilis (Fabr.)), and four Old World exotics (Monomorium floricola (Jerdon), Paratrechina longicornis (Latreille), Pheidole megacephala (Fabr.), and Technomyrmex albipes (Smith)). Only the two Neotropical exotics, Ps. gracilis and C. sexguttatus, inhabited thorns with holes that appeared to have been perforated by ants as entrances. For Ps. gracilis, and perhaps also for C. sexguttatus, their association with ant-acacias in Florida represents the reconstitution in an exotic locale of a facultative symbiosis evolved in the Neotropics.

Photuris trilineata (Say) is assigned to Aspisoma Laporte, and the type female is redescribed. Photuris trivittata sp. n. is described from behavior voucher specimens, and behavioral data are presented and discussed. Aspects of abdominal segmentation and aedeagal structure of Aspisoma and Photuris are described.