The color preference of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), was determined in two experiments using selected cut flowers. Four different colors of each of the three species of cut flowers were tested. The cut flowers were gerbera daisy, Gerbera jamesonii (H. Bolus ex. Hook. f); matsumoto aster, Callistephus chinensis (Nees); and daisy mum, Chrysanthemum x morifolium (Ramat). Two hundred adult western flower thrips obtained from a laboratory reared and greenhouse colony were released into plastic observation cages containing the cut flowers. After 72 hours, all flowers were harvested and the number of thrips per flower was counted. In the first experiment, western flower thrips preferred, based on the number of adults per flower, yellow gerbera daisy, yellow daisy mum, and white aster over the other species colors presented. The most preferred flowers from each genus and color were subsequently used for the second experiment. In the second experiment, yellow gerbera daisy flowers had significantly more adult western flower thrips than the other flower types, which suggests that this flower color was most preferred by western flower thrips. Additionally, the reflectance spectra of the cut flowers and three commercially available sticky cards were measured using a spectroradiometer and integrating sphere. The flower spectrums were compared with the reflectance spectra of the sticky cards. The reflectance spectra of the yellow gerbera daisy were similar to the yellow sticky card, which is commonly recommended to monitor for adult western flower thrips in greenhouse production systems.
Keywords: western flower thrips, color preference, trap crops, integrated pest management
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