2010 Volume 54 Issue 3 Pages 135-139
The effect of trimming and harvesting host tea plants and bigleaf podocarp trees on the dispersal of Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood adults to citrus orchards was investigated in tea fields and in the windbreaks of bigleaf podocarps adjacent to a citrus orchard. The days of the highest trap catch in the three types of fields coincided with each other and with the days on which there were the maximum number of adults in the citrus orchards, estimated as a function of generation temperature. In all three types of fields, when the tea plants and bigleaf podocarp trees were not trimmed after the peak days, the number of adults captured by the trap decreased within 10 d to the level observed 5 d before the peak. This decrease was not observed when the tea plants were trimmed 1–9 d after the peak days. These results suggest that the flight activity of adults is highest immediately after emergence and that trimming host plants encourages the flight behavior of adults by reducing the amount of food available.
