Wednesday, 20 November 2002
D0532

This presentation is part of : Display Presentations, Subsection Ca. Biological Control

Biological control of alfalfa weevil in New Mexico

J Breen Pierce, A. Richardson, P. Yates, C. Sutherland, and J. Ellington. New Mexico State University, Department Of Entomology Plant Pathology, Weed Science, P.O. Box 30001, Las Cruces, NM

Alfalfa weevil parasitoids were released in a number of counties of New Mexico as part of a joint USDA/NMDA/NMSU project in the 1980s. After those releases alfalfa weevil ppopulations diminished dramatically in southern New Mexico. However in the past two years growers have experience economic losses in southeastern New Mexico. A project was initiated this year to evaluate the level of biological control in various parts of New Mexico. Parasitoids are being reared from weevils collected from the Pecos valley, the Mesilla Valley. Socorro and Valencia Counties. Preliminary results indicate high levels of control in the Mesilla Valley but not in the Pecos Valley where there were higher populations of weevils in 2002.

Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Hypera postica (alfalfa weevil)
Keywords: parasitoid

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