Lablab ( L.) genotypes and field margin vegetation influence bean aphids and their natural enemies.

Lablab ( L.) is an important food and livestock feed legume that can also enhance soil fertility. However, its production is limited by insect pests, notably the black bean aphid ().

Combining visual cues and pheromone blends for monitoring and management of the tarnished plant bug Lygus lineolaris (Hemiptera: Miridae).

Background: The tarnished plant bug Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) is considered the most damaging pest of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) in the mid-southern United States. Previous studies have reported the role of different ratios of volatile metathoracic gland components such as hexyl butyrate, (E)-2-hexenyl butyrate and (E)-4-oxo-2-hexenal in eliciting low-level attraction of L.

Field margins and botanical insecticides enhance yield by reducing aphid pests and supporting natural enemies.

Botanical insecticides offer an environmentally benign insect pest management option for field crops with reduced impacts on natural enemies of pests and pollinators while botanically rich field margins can augment their abundance. Here, we evaluated the non-target effects on natural enemies and pest control efficacy on bean aphids in Lablab of three neem- and pyrethrum-based botanical insecticides (Pyerin75EC®, Nimbecidine® and Pyeneem 20EC®) and determine the influence of florally rich field margin vegetation on the recovery of beneficial insects after treatment. The botanical insecticides were applied at the early and late vegetative growth stages.

Plant-Rich Field Margins Influence Natural Predators of Aphids More Than Intercropping in Common Bean.

Field margins support important ecosystem services including natural pest regulation. We investigated the influence of field margins on the spatial and temporal distribution of natural enemies (NEs) of bean pests in smallholder farming systems. We sampled NEs from high and low plant diversity bean fields using sweep netting and coloured sticky traps, comparing monocropped and intercropped farms.

Field Margin Plants Support Natural Enemies in Sub-Saharan Africa Smallholder Common Bean Farming Systems.

Flower-rich field margins provide habitats and food resources for natural enemies of pests (NEs), but their potential, particularly in the tropics and on smallholder farms, is poorly understood. We surveyed field margins for plant-NE interactions in bean fields. NEs most often interacted with (15.

Natural Pest Regulation and Its Compatibility with Other Crop Protection Practices in Smallholder Bean Farming Systems.

Common bean () production and storage are limited by numerous constraints. Insect pests are often the most destructive. However, resource-constrained smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) often do little to manage pests.

Bumble bees show an induced preference for flowers when primed with caffeinated nectar and a target floral odor.

Caffeine is a widely occurring plant defense chemical that occurs in the nectar of some plants, e.g., Coffea or Citrus spp.

Beneficial insects are associated with botanically rich margins with trees on small farms.

Beneficial insect communities on farms are influenced by site- and landscape-level factors, with pollinator and natural enemy populations often associated with semi-natural habitat remnants. They provide ecosystem services essential for all agroecosystems. For smallholders, natural pest regulation may be the only affordable and available option to manage pests.

Insect pollination is important in a smallholder bean farming system.

Background: Many crops are dependent on pollination by insects. Habitat management in agricultural landscapes can support pollinator services and even augment crop production. Common bean ( L.

Multiple ecosystem services from field margin vegetation for ecological sustainability in agriculture: scientific evidence and knowledge gaps.

Background: Field margin and non-crop vegetation in agricultural systems are potential ecosystem services providers because they offer semi-natural habitats for both below and above ground animal groups such as soil organisms, small mammals, birds and arthropods that are service supplying units. They are considered as a target area for enhancing farm biodiversity.

Methodology: To explore the multiple potential benefits of these semi-natural habitats and to identify research trends and knowledge gaps globally, a review was carried out following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Floral Odors and the Interaction between Pollinating Ceratopogonid Midges and Cacao.

Most plant species depend upon insect pollination services, including many cash and subsistence crops. Plants compete to attract those insects using visual cues and floral odor which pollinators associate with a reward. The cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, has a highly specialized floral morphology permitting pollination primarily by Ceratopogonid midges.

Characterization of Hymenopteran Parasitoids of in an African Smallholder Bean Farming System through Sequencing of COI 'Mini-Barcodes'.

Parasitoids are among the most frequently reported natural enemies of insect pests, particularly aphids. The efficacy of parasitoids as biocontrol agents is influenced by biotic and abiotic factors. For example, hyperparasitoids can reduce the abundance of the primary parasitoids as well as modify their behavior.

Flower colour diversity seen through the eyes of pollinators. A commentary on: 'Floral colour structure in two Australian herbaceous communities: it depends on who is looking'.

This article comments on: . Floral colour structure in two Australian herbaceous communities: it depends on who is looking. Annals of Botany : 221–232.

Mechanisms in mutualisms: a chemically mediated thrips pollination strategy in common elder.

This study provides first evidence of a thrips species pollinating Sambucus nigra and describes how interactions are driven by plant biochemical signalling and moderated by temporal changes in floral chemistry. The concept of flower-feeding thrips as pollinating insects in temperate regions is rarely considered as they are more frequently regarded to be destructive florivores feeding on pollen and surrounding plant tissue. Combining laboratory and field-based studies we examined interactions between Sambucus nigra (elderflower) and Thrips major within their native range to ascertain the role of thrips in the pollination of this species and to determine if floral chemicals mediated flower visits.

Flower colour within communities shifts from overdispersed to clustered along an alpine altitudinal gradient.

Altitudinal gradients are interesting models to test the effect of biotic and abiotic drivers of floral colour diversity, since an increase in UV irradiance, decrease of pollinator availability and shifts from bee- to fly-pollination in high relative to low altitudes are expected. We tested the effect of altitude and phylogeny, using several chromatic and achromatic colour properties, UV reflectance and pollinators' discrimination capacity (Apis mellifera, Bombus terrestris, Musca domestica and Eristalis tenax), to understand the floral colour diversity in an alpine altitudinal gradient. All colour properties were weakly related to phylogeny.

Shades of yellow: interactive effects of visual and odour cues in a pest beetle.

Background: The visual ecology of pest insects is poorly studied compared to the role of odour cues in determining their behaviour. Furthermore, the combined effects of both odour and vision on insect orientation are frequently ignored, but could impact behavioural responses.

Methods: A locomotion compensator was used to evaluate use of different visual stimuli by a major coleopteran pest of stored grains (Sitophilus zeamais), with and without the presence of host odours (known to be attractive to this species), in an open-loop setup.

The effect of polyploidy and hybridization on the evolution of floral colour in Nicotiana (Solanaceae).

Background And Aims: Speciation in angiosperms can be accompanied by changes in floral colour that may influence pollinator preference and reproductive isolation. This study investigates whether changes in floral colour can accompany polyploid and homoploid hybridization, important processes in angiosperm evolution.

Methods: Spectral reflectance of corolla tissue was examined for 60 Nicotiana (Solanaceae) accessions (41 taxa) based on spectral shape (corresponding to pigmentation) as well as bee and hummingbird colour perception in order to assess patterns of floral colour evolution.

Herbivore defence compounds occur in pollen and reduce bumblebee colony fitness.

Herbivory defence chemicals in plants can affect higher trophic levels such as predators and parasitoids, but the impact on pollinators has been overlooked. We show that defensive plant chemicals can damage pollinator fitness when expressed in pollen. Crop lupins (Lupinus species from Europe and South America) accumulate toxic quinolizidine alkaloids in vegetative tissues, conferring resistance to herbivorous pests such as aphids.

Odour-mediated orientation of beetles is influenced by age, sex and morph.

The behaviour of insects is dictated by a combination of factors and may vary considerably between individuals, but small insects are often considered en masse and thus these differences can be overlooked. For example, the cowpea bruchid Callosobruchus maculatus F. exists naturally in two adult forms: the active (flight) form for dispersal, and the inactive (flightless), more fecund but shorter-lived form.

Illumination preference, illumination constancy and colour discrimination by bumblebees in an environment with patchy light.

Patchy illumination presents foraging animals with a challenge, as the targets being sought may appear to vary in colour depending on the illumination, compromising target identification. We sought to explore how the bumblebee Bombus terrestris copes with tasks involving flower colour discrimination under patchy illumination. Light patches varied between unobscured daylight and leaf-shade, as a bee might encounter in and around woodland.

Optimizing the colour and fabric of targets for the control of the tsetse fly Glossina fuscipes fuscipes.

Background: Most cases of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) start with a bite from one of the subspecies of Glossina fuscipes. Tsetse use a range of olfactory and visual stimuli to locate their hosts and this response can be exploited to lure tsetse to insecticide-treated targets thereby reducing transmission. To provide a rational basis for cost-effective designs of target, we undertook studies to identify the optimal target colour.

FReD: the floral reflectance database--a web portal for analyses of flower colour.

Background: Flower colour is of great importance in various fields relating to floral biology and pollinator behaviour. However, subjective human judgements of flower colour may be inaccurate and are irrelevant to the ecology and vision of the flower's pollinators. For precise, detailed information about the colours of flowers, a full reflectance spectrum for the flower of interest should be used rather than relying on such human assessments.

Angiosperm wood structure: Global patterns in vessel anatomy and their relation to wood density and potential conductivity.

Woody stems comprise a large biological carbon fraction and determine water transport between roots and leaves; their structure and function can influence both carbon and hydrological cycles. While angiosperm wood anatomy and density determine hydraulic conductivity and mechanical strength, little is known about interrelations across many species. We compiled a global data set comprising two anatomical traits for 3005 woody angiosperms: mean vessel lumen area (Ā) and number per unit area (N).

Behavioural ecology: bees associate warmth with floral colour.

Floral colour signals are used by pollinators as predictors of nutritional rewards, such as nectar. But as insect pollinators often need to invest energy to maintain their body temperature above the ambient temperature, floral heat might also be perceived as a reward. Here we show that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) prefer to visit warmer flowers and that they can learn to use colour to predict floral temperature before landing.