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Title: ESTABLISHMENT OF PINK BOLLWORM IN SOUTHEASTERN US COTTON: LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS AND MODEL VALIDATION

Author
item VENNETTE, R - UNIV OF MINN, ST PAUL MN
item Naranjo, Steven
item HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM - UNIV OF MINN, ST PAUL MN

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Although the pink bollworm (PBW) remains a significant pest of cotton in the southwestern US, the pest has not yet become established in the southeastern US. The objectives of this study were to determine how low temperatures and high soil moisture common to the southeastern US might affect mortality of diapausing and nondiapausing larvae of PBW. At constant ttemperatures, moisture (0%), and darkness in the laboratory, nondiapausing prepupal larvae from a colony died more quickly as temperatures were lowered from 22-10-5 deg C. At 5 deg C, 90% of the population was dead after 12 d. Under similar experimental conditions, prepupal larvae reared under diapause inducing conditions, but showing no developmental evidence of diapause, also died more quickly at lower temperatures. In this case, 26 d at 5 deg C were required to achieve 90% mortality. For diapausing, prepupal larvae collected from the field, mortality was greater at 5 deg C than at 20, 15, or 10 deg C, but larvae could withstand 5C for 60 d before 90% of the population died. In response to moisture, as soils at 10 deg C became saturated, most larvae (60%) died within the first 10 d of the experiment. These studies suggest that late-instar larvae of PBW are moderately resilient to the effects of low temperature and moisture. Diapausing individuals are more resilient to low temperatures than nondiapausing individuals. Winter temperatures in the southeastern US are not sufficiently cold to preclude establishment.