In recent years, Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica Newman) have become a serious concern for air cargo carriers at the Indianapolis International Airport. During the loading or unloading process, these pests can enter the planes and inadvertently be transported to the western states, where they currently are not established. Carriers delivering beetles to western states can be fined, have their deliveries delayed, or have other penalties imposed. Because of these concerns, a study was initiated to investigate the influence of land use on beetle abundance near the airport. Japanese beetle traps baited with floral lure were placed around the perimeter of the airport and emptied daily during four consecutive seasons. A spatially explicit map of land use and trap location was created using a geographic information system. The land uses identified were agriculture, forest, grass, hardscape, meadow, and residential. Plumes from each trap were modeled, based on wind conditions, to describe the dispersion of the floral lure. Within each trap’s plume, the area of each land use was computed. Correlation analysis was used to assess the relationship between daily trap catch and the area of each land use within the plumes. Agricultural land area was consistently positively correlated with daily trap catch.
Species 1: Coleoptera Scarabaeidae Popillia japonica (Japanese Beetle)
Keywords: regulatory entomology, landscape ecology
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Back to The 2002 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition