Documenting Potential Sunn Hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.) (Fabaceae) Pollinators in Florida.

Sunn hemp, Crotalaria juncea L., is a warm-season legume that can be planted in rotation to cash crops to add nitrogen and organic matter to the soils, for weed growth prevention, and to suppress nematode populations. Sunn hemp flowers also provide nectar and pollen for pollinators and enhance biological control by furnishing habitat for natural enemies.

An Advanced Numerical Trajectory Model Tracks a Corn Earworm Moth Migration Event in Texas, USA.

Many methods for trajectory simulation, such as Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT), have been developed over the past several decades and contributed greatly to our knowledge in insect migratory movement. To improve the accuracy of trajectory simulation, we developed a new numerical trajectory model, in which the self-powered flight behaviors of insects are considered and trajectory calculation is driven by high spatio-temporal resolution weather conditions simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. However, a rigorous evaluation of the accuracy of different trajectory models on simulated long-distance migration is lacking.

Multiscale analyses on a massive immigration process of Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) in south-central China: influences of synoptic-scale meteorological conditions and topography.

Mass landings of migrating white-backed planthopper, Sogatella furcifera (Horváth), can lead to severe outbreaks that cause heavy losses for rice production in East Asia. South-central China is the main infestation area on the annual migration loop of S. furcifera between the northern Indo-China Peninsula and mainland China; however, rice planthopper species are not able to survive in this region over winter.

Predator-prey interaction reveals local effects of high-altitude insect migration.

High-altitude nocturnal insect migrations are ubiquitous and represent significant pulses of biomass, which impact large areas and multiple trophic levels, yet are difficult to study and poorly understood. Predation on migratory insects by high-flying bats provides potential for investigating flows of migratory insects across a landscape. Brazilian free-tailed bats, Tadarida brasiliensis, provide valuable ecosystem services by consuming migratory pests, and research suggests migratory insects are an important resource to bats in autumn.

Haplotype Profile Comparisons Between Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Populations From Mexico With Those From Puerto Rico, South America, and the United States and Their Implications to Migratory Behavior.

Fall armyworm [Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith)] is a major economic pest throughout the Western Hemisphere of maize, cotton, sorghum, and a variety of agricultural grasses and vegetable crops.

Weather-driven dynamics in a dual-migrant system: moths and bats.

Animal migrations generate large spatial and temporal fluctuations in biomass that provide a resource base for many predator-prey interactions. These interactions are often driven by continent-scale weather patterns and are difficult to study. Few studies have included migratory animals on more than a single trophic level or for periods spanning multiple entire seasons.

Bats track and exploit changes in insect pest populations.

The role of bats or any generalist predator in suppressing prey populations depends on the predator's ability to track and exploit available prey. Using a qPCR fecal DNA assay, we document significant association between numbers of Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) consuming corn earworm (CEW) moths (Helicoverpa zea) and seasonal fluctuations in CEW populations. This result is consistent with earlier research linking the bats' diet to patterns of migration, abundance, and crop infestation by important insect pests.

A model for long-distance dispersal of boll weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae).

The boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis (Boheman), has been a major insect pest of cotton production in the US, accounting for yield losses and control costs on the order of several billion US dollars since the introduction of the pest in 1892. Boll weevil eradication programs have eliminated reproducing populations in nearly 94%, and progressed toward eradication within the remaining 6%, of cotton production areas. However, the ability of weevils to disperse and reinfest eradicated zones threatens to undermine the previous investment toward eradication of this pest.

Multidisciplinary fingerprints: forensic reconstruction of an insect reinvasion.

An unexpected outbreak of boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis, an insect pest of cotton, across the Southern Rolling Plains (SRP) eradication zone of west-central Texas, USA, was detected soon after passage of Tropical Storm Erin through the Winter Garden district to the south on 16 August 2007. The synchrony and broad geographic distribution of the captured weevils suggest that long-distance dispersal was responsible for the reinvasion. We integrated three types of assessment to reconstruct the geographic origin of the immigrants: (i) DNA fingerprinting; (ii) pollen fingerprinting; and (iii) atmospheric trajectory analysis.

Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis: Molossidae, Chiroptera) at high altitude: links to migratory insect populations.

Existing information on the activity of bats in the aerosphere is restricted almost exclusively to altitudes that are within a few tens of meters above the ground. We report a total of 50.2 h of ultrasonic recordings made using radio microphonic bat detectors suspended from free-floating helium balloons and from kites.

Noctuid migration in Texas within the nocturnal aeroecological boundary layer.

Long-distance migration of adult corn earworm moths (Helicoverpa zea), and several other noctuid moth species, facilitates seasonal expansion of pest populations and consequent increased infestations of agricultural crops on a continental scale in North America. Long-term field studies of population dynamics and migratory flights of H. zea and fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) in the United States were evaluated using X-band radar observations and profiles of atmospheric conditions.

Aeroecology: probing and modeling the aerosphere.

Aeroecology is a discipline that embraces and integrates the domains of atmospheric science, ecology, earth science, geography, computer science, computational biology, and engineering. The unifying concept that underlies this emerging discipline is its focus on the planetary boundary layer, or aerosphere, and the myriad of organisms that, in large part, depend upon this environment for their existence. The aerosphere influences both daily and seasonal movements of organisms, and its effects have both short- and long-term consequences for species that use this environment.

Brazilian free-tailed bats as insect pest regulators in transgenic and conventional cotton crops.

During the past 12000 years agricultural systems have transitioned from natural habitats to conventional agricultural regions and recently to large areas of genetically engineered (GE) croplands. This GE revolution occurred for cotton in a span of slightly more than a decade during which a switch occurred in major cotton production areas from growing 100% conventional cotton to an environment in which 95% transgenics are grown. Ecological interactions between GE targeted insects and other insectivorous insects have been investigated.

An experiment using neutron activation analysis and a rare earth element to mark cotton plants and two insects that feed on them.

Studies on insect dispersal and other behaviors can benefit from using markers that will not alter flight and fitness. Rare earth elements, such as samarium (Sm), have been used as ingested markers of some insects and detected using neutron activation analysis (NAA). In this study, samarium nitrate hexahydrate was mixed into artificial diet for boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), at different dosages and in water used to irrigate cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L.