A survey of canopy (shake cloth) and ground-dwelling (pitfall traps) coleopteran and dermapteran predators was carried out weekly during two seasons in commercial fields of Bt and non-Bt cotton near Tifton, Georgia. Predators in the cotton canopy were, in order of abundance and richness: Coccinellidae (6 spp.), Anthicidae (1 sp.), and Forficulidae (1 sp.), respectively. Ground-dwelling predator abundance in order was: Cicindelidae, Labiduridae, Carabidae, Carcinophoridae, Staphylinidae, and Forficulidae. For richness, however, Carabidae was predominant over other families with 23 species, followed by Cicindelidae and Staphylinidae with three species each, and other families with one species each. In the cotton canopy, the lady beetle Scymnus was the dominant species with an average of one to four individuals per shake cloth across the season. Among epigeal predators the tiger beetle Megacephala carolina and the earwig Labidura riparia were more abundant than other species. All ground-dwelling species decreased in abundance by the end of July in contrast to canopy predators that increased in abundance from mid-June. Overall, the abundance and diversity’s indices did not differ between Bt and non-Bt systems, except for species infrequently found (< 2 individuals) or of localized occurrence in a single field.
Species 1: Coleoptera Carabidae Calosoma sayi (ground beetle)
Species 2: Dermaptera Labiduridae Labidura riparia (earwig)
Species 3: Coleoptera Cicindelidae Megacephala carolina (tiger beetle)
Keywords: Bt-cotton, biological control
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