Larvae of the soybean looper (SBL), Pseudoplusia includens (Walker), were reared on three food types: soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, genotypes ‘Kirby’ (insect susceptible) and GatIR 81-296 (insect resistant), and Florida beggarweed, (Desmodium tortuosum (Swartz) de Candolle. Larval development was longest on GatIR 81-296 (16.7 days) followed by beggarweed (15.5 days) and Kirby (14.1 days). Total consumption and relative consumption rate by ultimate (6th) instar SBL were significantly greatest on Kirby with no difference noted in consumption between GatIR 81-296 and beggarweed. However, approximate digestibility and efficiency of conversion of ingested food by ultimate instars were significantly greatest on beggarweed compared with the two soybean genotypes. Ultimate instar weight gain and growth rate were similar for larvae restricted to Kirby and beggarweed, while larvae restricted to GatIR 81-296 had significantly reduced weight gain and growth rate. Pupal weights of individuals reared on GatIR 81-296 also were significantly reduced compared with those in the Kirby and beggarweed treatments. SBL larvae consumed less beggarweed foliage (mg dry weight) than Kirby soybean, yet compensated to some extent by utilizing beggarweed foliage more efficiently. Beggarweed proved to be a better source of larval nutrition for SBL than the insect-resistant soybean genotype GatIR 81-296.

Microplitis demolitor Wilkinson were reared in Heliothis zea (Boddie) larvae fed artificial diet and cowpea seedlings. The effect of temperature on development time, food and humidity on adult longevity, and cage design on mating and subsequent sex ratio of the progeny of M. demolitor were tested and are discussed. It was determined that individual pairs of males and females should be held in mating chambers for at least 24 hours in order to obtain a high percentage of inseminated parent females. Females used for parasitization should be at least 24 hours old in order to obtain the maximum number of female progeny. A 25-day longevity of female parasitoids was obtained when they were fed unadulterated honey and a separate water source, and confined in 90–95% relative humidity. A parasitoid survival of 74% was obtained in the hosts when they were reared individually on artificial diet at 27°C. Our rearing techniques were shown to produce parasitoids with a consistent high host searching response as shown by tests involving use of volatile semiochemicals in a wind tunnel.

Phidippus audax (Hentz) were allowed to feed on bollworm, Heliothis zea (Boddie), larvae which had ingested diet containing three concentrations of abamectin. Significantly reduced weight gain was noted for spiders feeding on the treated larvae and toxicity effects were visible in most of the spiders within 48 h. Over 80% of the spiders that fed on larvae from diet containing 10 ppm abamectin were either torpid or dead, and 100% of spiders that fed on larvae from diet containing 40 ppm abamectin were torpid or dead.

Applications of a granular formulation of carbofuran to the soil beneath pecan trees at (16 and 32 kg actual insecticide per ha) to control adult pecan weevils as they emerged from the soil reduced pecan aphid populations and increased pecan leaf scorch mite populations. Pecan weevil damage was not decreased by the treatments and adults trapped from treated soil were similar to adults trapped from untreated pecans.soil with respect to fecundity and ability to damage pecans.

The biology of Hister nomas Erichson was studied in the laboratory to define the developmental history of this bovine dung attracted predator. Female beetles deposited eggs singly 0.5–3.0 cm deep in the soil beneath dung. Embryogenesis was completed in 2.8 days after oviposition. There were two larval instars; each stage required ca. 6.1 and 6.2 days, respectively, for full development, and pupation to adult emergence averaged 17.5 days. Developmental time from oviposition to adult averaged 32.6 days.

On eight of 18 sampling dates, significantly more (p < 0.05) American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say), adults were found on or within 0.3 m of cotton sheets, baited with dry ice for 2 h, than on an equal number of unbaited sheets. Overall 4 times more ticks were at the baited sheets than the controls. Dragging vegetation in old fields, along woods edges and dirt roads and within woods, for ca. 16 of the 20 m between dry ice baits collected > 3 times more ticks than the dry ice; significantly more (p < 0.05) ticks on nine of the 18 sampling dates and never significantly (p < 0.05) fewer. On two of 18 sampling dates, dry ice baits attracted no ticks while ticks were found by dragging and on three sampling dates dry ice catches were < 3% of the corresponding drag catches. Dragging the same transects the day before or after dry ice sampling caught as many ticks as on the sampling days. No immature D. variabillis were collected by the dragging or dry ice method. In this study dragging was more reliable, faster, (one visit to a transect instead of two), and easier (lighter equipment) than short duration dry ice sampling. Neither method collected more than one tick in 32 samples in wooded areas.

Arthropod predator-prey distribution patterns were examined in poultry manure with respect to spatial position, manure moisture content and age of the manure habitat. The predators, Carcinops pumilio (Erichson) (Coleoptera: Histeridae) and Macrocheles muscaedomesticae (Scopoli) (Acarina: Macrochelidae) and their sphaerocerid and acarid prey were concentrated in the surface region of the manure and were more abundant towards the crest than the bases of rows of mature droppings. Fly larvae, acarid mites, M. muscaedomesticae females and Ca. pumilio larvae were more abundant in wetter than dry manure. Macrocheles muscaedomesticae females and Ca. pumilio adults appeared to prefer older to fresher manure, even though prey were more abundant in the latter.

The effect of larval density on estimates of effectiveness of larvicides with Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (BTI) as the active ingredient (a.i.) was evaluated. Bioassays with Aedes aegypti (L.) fourth instars showed that the toxic effect of a standard powder (IPS-78) and a wettable powder formulation (Bactimos^®) was independent of volume because the effect of varying the water volume in test vessels was usually negligible and had no obvious relationship to larval mortality. Data were best interpreted as a function of dose (i.e., the absolute amount of a. i.) and the number of larvae in each test vessel rather than as a function of concentration (dose rate). This indicated that accurate comparisons of acute toxicity estimates derived from different tests with differing numbers of larvae (i.e., differing densities) can be made if results are reduced to and expressed as the EC₅₀/larva.

Boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis Boheman were fed an artificial diet containing 100 ppm of diflubenzuron and either 2.5 or 10% sucrose for five days prior to an irradiation dose of 10 krads on day six. After the feeding plus irradiation treatment, the weevils were given cotton squares or artificial diet posttreatment. Treated weevils contained significantly higher levels of water than the control samples for five days posttreatment. In comparisons between the four treatments, feeding squares for the first two days posttreatment resulted in significantly higher water content in half the treatments. Similarly, when comparisons were made between the four controls it was also found that feeding squares resulted in more water in two groups tested. Sugar concentration did not influence water content in boll weevils.

Using a model system of cotton and the causative agent of bacterial blight, Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum (Smith) Dye (XCM), microbial transmission by feeding of the cotton fleahopper, Pseudatomoscelis seriatus (Reuter) (CFH), was studied. In controlled feeding tests, artificially infested CFH infected 51% of the plants they attacked. Of these infected plants, 81% exhibited symptoms of the disease, while 19% did not exhibit symptoms, but contained the bacterium. After feeding to acquire XCM, salivary glands and alimentary tracts were dissected and assayed for the presence of XCM. The bacterium was reisolated from 60% of the salivary gland pairs examined, and 95% of the alimentary tracts that were analyzed. In addition, viable bacteria were isolated from 76% of CFH fecal spots which were collected within a 24 h period after insects fed on the bacterium. XCM was present in 73% of the aliquots taken from a solution which was used to surface sterilize CFH after feeding on the bacterium. The implications of CFH as vectors of microorganisms to cotton and the resulting increase in stress ethylene production by the plant are discussed.

In greenhouse preference tests Heliothis zea (Boddie) moths oviposited significantly more eggs on blooming snap bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L., than on pre-blooming plants. When moths were held in cages containing only 1 plant stage (non-preference tests) significantly more eggs were laid on blooming snap beans than on either pre- or post-bloom plants. Furthermore, this ovipositional response to blooming plants was much more striking after moths were caged for 3 nights. During nights 4–6, oviposition continued at a similar rate on blooming plants, while pre- and post-bloom plants received very few eggs. Regardless of plant stage, most eggs were laid on the top and bottom of large snap bean leaves.

A predaceous hemipteran, Geocoris punctipes (Say) was fed an artificial diet containing 0, 0.01, 0.10, or 1.00% rutin, a plant secondary chemical known to affect adversely certain phytophagous insects. Survival rates, exuvial weights, egg weights, relative growth rates, consumption indices, growth efficiencies, metabolic efficiencies and digestive efficiencies were unaffected by any of the rutin concentrations tested. Frass production for nymphs and adults was decreased by all rutin treatments. Uric acid excretion was decreased by all rutin concentrations in adult G. punctipes but not in nymphal insects.

Application of dimethoate on various spray dates enabled a refinement of a spray timing technique for control of the third generation of Nantucket pine tip moth. Two spray applications were necessary for adequate control but proper timing of the first application was found to be more critical. Optimal control was achieved when the first spray was applied at 520 degree days after the onset of male moth flight. Optimal dates generally coincided with peak egg densities.

Although a few eggs and early instar larvae were found after the completion of the third generation of tip moth, no extended survival, damage or other indication of a fourth generation was recorded.

The recent movement of fire ants into previously non-infested northwest Georgia counties led to an investigation of their identity. Gas chromatograph traces of the cuticular hydrocarbon patterns of these ants showed them to be hybrids of Solenopsis invicta Buren and Solenopsis richteri Forel. This study extends the known range of the hybrid to ten Georgia counties, twenty-one Alabama counties, and five Mississippi counties.

Early maturing soybean, Glycine max, cultivars and southern peas, Vigna unguiculata, were used as trap crops in large scale field tests for Nezara viridula population management in soybean. In a 1979 test, the ‘Dare’ trap crop reached R5 (podfill) ca. 2 weeks prior to ‘Bragg’, and was infested with a much larger stink bug population. Southern peas and ‘Coker 156’ soybean were used in four field tests in 1981, and results indicated that insecticide treatments applied to the trap crop when the main crop ‘Bragg’ was in R3-R4 (podset) stage were applied too late, thereby allowing stink bug populations in each field to develop to high population levels. These results indicate that chemical controls should be applied to the trap crop before 5th stage nymphs change to adults with much greater dispersal capability and sexual maturity. Additionally, treatment of the trap crop should occur before the main crop enters the R3-R4 stage of development, since oviposition by female N. viridula is known to be greatly intensified in soybean in that phenological stage.