Traps baited with the synthetic pheromone of the boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) are used extensively to monitor local and long-range movement, to detect and monitor local populations and potential problem fields, and to guide treatment decisions in cotton. Quantification of the effects of environmental factors and their interactions on boll weevil trap captures is important to efforts to optimize trap deployment, and to appropriate interpretation of capture data. In addition to its physical effects on weevil flight, air movement may generate positional variation in trap captures through its effects on the pheromone plume. Boll weevil traps are often placed in trap lines along the edge of cotton fields. Comparisons of captures among traps spaced 15 m apart indicate that on days when moderate (10-20 km/h) winds struck the trap line at an angle, the upwind trap captured more weevils than the traps in the interior of the line. Differences between traps on days with perpendicular winds were not significant.
Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Anthonomus grandis grandis (boll weevil)
Keywords: cotton insect pests, pheromone plumes
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA