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Syngenta and FMC to bring to market breakthrough technology to control rice weeds in Asia. Photo: Business Wire
Syngenta Crop Protection and FMC Corporation have announced an agreement to bring to market a breakthrough technology to control grass weeds in rice in Asia. The new active ingredient Tetflupyrolimet, discovered and developed by FMC with support from Syngenta for the development in rice, marks the first major herbicide with a novel mode of action (DHODH – HRAC Group 28) in over three decades, promising relief to farmers challenged by weed resistance to existing herbicides.
Tetflupyrolimet boosts the yield and quality of rice production by delivering season-long control of the most significant grass weeds, which compete with the crop for water, fertilizer, light and space, and host pests and diseases that impact rice farming. A further benefit of this technology is that it can be used at low rates with good crop safety. In addition to being easy to apply in traditional transplanted rice, the herbicide is also highly suited to direct-seeded rice, paving the way for the greater adoption of modern and more environmentally friendly cropping systems.
“This innovation will drive a step-change in the yield and quality of rice harvests, address the growing challenge of weed resistance, and could transform the lives of millions of rice farmers,” said Ioana Tudor, Global Head of Marketing at Syngenta Crop Protection. “At Syngenta, we are excited by the potential of this new technology to elevate the sustainability of global rice production.”
Rice production is central to the livelihoods of an estimated 150 million farmers globally, who supply a fifth of the world’s dietary energy. It is the most important food crop in developing countries, accounting for close to 30 percent of the total calorific intake of these populations. Rice farming is also one of the most important sources of employment in rural areas.
Under the agreement, Syngenta and FMC will both bring Tetflupyrolimet based products to key rice markets in Asia. Syngenta will register and commercialize Tetflupyrolimet in China – the world’s largest rice market. In addition, Syngenta will commercialize products containing mixtures of Tetflupyrolimet for rice in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, as well as in Japan and South Korea. FMC will register and commercialize Tetflupyrolimet and an array of products in all these countries, except in China where it will focus on mixtures for rice. Syngenta will further exclusively commercialize Tetflupyrolimet for rice in Bangladesh.
A house mouse sitting in a yard in Australia Passing Traveller/Shutterstock
House mice may look cute, but they’re little monsters when it comes to crops. The rodents destroy 70 million tons of rice, wheat, and maize each year by devouring and infesting stored grain. They also dig up and eat the seeds farmers have planted.
Humans have been locked in a battle with these pests for millennia, using everything from cats to poisons. A new study may have found a better—and more humane—alternative: camouflaging fields with a scent that makes the seeds practically undetectable to mice.
It’s a “simple but elegant” solution, says Nils Christian Stenseth, a biologist at the University of Oslo and an expert of rodent impacts on crops who was not involved with the work. The approach, he says, could be applied to other crop pests such as insects and rats.
Mice rely on their sense of smell to find food. When it comes to wheat, that means sniffing out wheat germ, the embryo inside the seed that develops into the plant. House mice (Mus musculus) are an especially big problem in Australia, because they are not native. During years when their populations explode, the rodents can cause significant losses to the country’s $13 billion wheat harvest.
Farmers in Australia have mainly tried to control the mice with poisons and pesticides, says Peter Banks, a biologist at the University of Sydney. But these chemicals have to be reapplied often, which gets expensive. They can also kill birds and other wildlife.
Hay destroyed by mice when a mouse plague hit Australia in 2021Jill Gralow/Reuters
In the new study, Banks and his colleagues modified a strategy that has proved successful in protecting endangered birds in New Zealand: throwing nonnative predators off the scent of their prey by robbing the scent of its meaning. In the New Zealand study, scientists smeared birds’ scents in places birds would never be found, such as piles of rocks. After a few days, cats and other predators began to view these scents as “misinformation.” When the native ground-nesting shorebirds arrived for their nesting season, the predators didn’t bother pursuing them even though they could smell them.
To try something similar for mice, Banks and his colleagues divided a wheat farm in rural New South Wales in Australia into 60 plots of 10 by 10 meters where wheat would be sown. The team sprayed unsown plots with wheat germ oil, hoping local mice would learn to associate wheat fields with a waste of their time and energy. In other fields, the team sprayed the soil with wheat germ oil after sowing, whereas other plots were left untreated.
Unlike in the New Zealand study, attempts to get the mice to see the wheat germ scent as a false signal largely didn’t work. Instead, “camouflaging” wheat fields with the scent did; in fields where the scent was overwhelming, the mice couldn’t seem to figure out where the seeds were. The camouflaged plots suffered 74% less damage than the untreated plot, the team reports today in Nature Sustainability.
The equipment needed to spray the wheat germ scent on soil is part of common farm machinery, Banks notes, and wheat germ oil is an inexpensive byproduct of wheat milling. So the approach should be relatively easy to adopt by farmers, he says.
“This is a really nice piece of work,” says Peter Brown, a biologist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, an Australian government agency that funds and performs scientific research. Still, he says, the researchers need to figure out how much wheat germ oil farmers would need to apply—and how often—before the work can be translated to the real world. “Should it be applied every year, or just when mouse numbers are high at sowing? Lots of questions remain.”
Detecting pest insects across large areas means placing vast numbers of traps, with associated costs to set them up and check them regularly. Grid patterns have been the traditional choice, but a new study shows trap-placement patterns using parallel lines could be just as effective with much lower servicing requirements. Such large-scale trapping is used in detection of pests such as the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar), and the study of trap patterns used trapping data from spongy moth detection efforts in North Carolina and Ohio in 2021 to evaluate various trapping simulations. (Photo by Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org)
By John P. Roche, Ph.D.
Sampling for the presence of insect pests has traditionally used traps laid out in grid patterns. While effective, they are labor intensive to set up and monitor and thus a costly way to sample. In a new study, however, researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and North Carolina State University show that alternative trap-layout designs can match grid patterns in effectively detecting pest insects with lower servicing requirements.
Because of the expense that would be involved with testing trap-layout designs in the field, the researchers used simulations with a computer model called TrapGrid. Barney Caton, Ph.D., of the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service; Hui Fang, Ph.D., and Godshen Pallipparambil, Ph.D., of the Center for Integrated Pest Management at NC State; and Nicholas Manoukis, Ph.D., of the USDA Agricultural Research Service published their findings in April in the Journal of Economic Entomology.
TrapGrid can simulate the detection of insect pests by traps arranged in different patterns in a simulated landscape. In their simulations, the research team compared the performance of traditional grid patterns with alternative designs based on transects that they called “trap-sect” designs. Building on earlier work the researchers have conducted in trap-layout models, the team’s hypothesis was that trap-sect designs would detect pests as effectively as traditional grids but with much greater efficiency.
The alternative trap-layout designs tested were crossed lines, parallel lines, and spoked patterns. (See Figure 2.) In their simulations, Caton and colleagues measured the average probability of detection of a pest and the distance traveled to service the traps. Good sampling designs would have a high probability of detecting a pest and low servicing distances.
The researchers found that many of the alternative trap-layout designs provided pest detection that was similar to that provided by full grids. Of the alternative layouts, parallel-line designs showed the greatest probability of detection, followed by spoke designs, and then crossed-line designs. With parallel-line designs, the probability of detection increased incrementally with each additional line that was added, from two lines to seven lines, as would be expected.
Full grids had the longest servicing distance, followed by spokes and crossed lines (75 percent shorter), followed by parallel lines (66–89 percent shorter). Overall, in terms of detectability and efficiency combined, the best designs were four to seven parallel lines, followed by spoked lines.
A study of pest-insect trap-layout designs using the TrapGrid computer simulation, compared traditional grid patterns (A and B) with several alternate designs: four crossed lines (C), eight spokes with an untrapped hub (D), two parallel lines (E), four parallel lines (not pictured), five parallel lines (F), six parallel lines (G), and four parallel lines in a modified alignment (H). All designs used 250 traps, indicated by blue diamonds. Establishment positions of pests are indicated with red circles. (Image originally published in Caton et al 2023, Journal of Economic Entomology)
It makes sense that the alternative designs such as parallel lines and spoked lines were more efficient—with the shorter servicing distances of these designs, efficiency increases. But why was pest detectability in the parallel-line and spoked-line designs similar to the detectability in the full grid?
“This similarity is dependent on many things,” Manoukis says, “like the attractiveness of the traps.” With attractive traps, pests will be drawn to traps even if they are not in a full grid pattern. In addition, in the comparisons in these simulations, pest outbreaks occurred randomly in space, which might help them be detected by the alternative designs, making detectability more similar to that in the full grid.
To approximate how alternative sampling designs might work in the field, the investigators overlaid alternative designs onto actual trapping data for two pest moth species, the European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) in California in 2010 and the spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) in North Carolina and Ohio in 2021. In the overlay of a four-parallel-line trap design on European grapevine moth data from California, the service distance was reduced by 43 percent. In the overlay of a crossed-lines trap design on spongy moth data in North Carolina and Ohio, the service distance was reduced by 35 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
“Aligning traps in this way is a new idea,” Caton says, “but it makes sense to improve efficiency. Survey managers already have to place traps in the field; this method just has them being placed in different shapes. The basic process is unchanged.”
Barney Caton, Ph.D. (left), of the USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service; Hui Fang, Ph.D. (second from left), and Godshen Pallipparambil, Ph.D. (right), of the Center for Integrated Pest Management at NC State; and Nicholas Manoukis, Ph.D. (second from right), of the USDA Agricultural Research Service tested the probability of detection and the servicing distance of several alternative trap-layout designs for pest-insect sampling and compared the results to a traditional square grid design. They found that parallel-line and spoked-line trap designs offered good detection with significantly improved servicing efficiency. (Photo courtesy of USDA)
The investigators conclude that alternative trapping designs would reduce sampling costs considerably. But there are hurdles to overcome to implement these new designs. “The ‘tried and true’ methods often have some inertia behind them,” Caton says. “So, a new approach is almost always difficult to implement. But cost-cutting is usually a significant motivator, so our hope is that managers will adopt the trap-sect approach on that basis.”
The parallel-line and spoked-line sampling patterns worked well in the simulations in the study. Pest managers could refine these strategies even more by using an adaptive approach where surveyors add traps as pests are detected. This would permit pest detection with even greater efficiency. In future research, Caton and colleagues plan to investigate dynamic strategies of sampling that adapt over time.
“The TrapGrid model really made this research possible,” Caton says. “In the field it would be very time-consuming and costly to evaluate different designs. While some field validation is likely still needed, the results were strong enough that, given the good track record of the model, we are confident that the new sampling designs should work well.”
This investigation was the first test of alternative trap placement patterns for area-wide delimitation trapping in 40 years. Additional studies, including looking at dynamic sampling strategies, should further refine this promising approach.
The technology developed by researchers at the University of Sydney could revolutionize agricultural loss management due to mouse plague.
In 2021, NSW Farmers predicted that the mouse plague would inflict $1 billion in crop loss in Australia.
The study, published in Nature Sustainability, was led by Ph.D. student Finn Parker, with co-authors from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture and School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Professor Peter Banks, Dr. Catherine Price, and Jenna Bytheway.
According to the research team, spraying diluted wheat germ oil on a wheat crop before and after seeding reduces mice’s ability to successfully steal wheat seeds by 63 percent compared to untreated controls.
Seed loss was decreased by 74 percent if the same solution was applied to the wheat plot before planting. They claim that the mice have figured out how to ignore the wheat odour by the time the crop is sown.
This disinformation strategy may be effective in other agricultural systems since any animal that uses smell to locate food is potentially subject to our capacity to manipulate that smell and impair the animal’s ability to search.
Professor Banks said, “We could reduce mice damage even during plague conditions simply by making it hard for mice to find their food, by camouflaging the seed odor. Because they’re hungry, they can’t spend all their time searching for food that’s hard to find.”
He also said, “When the smell of the seed is everywhere, they’ll just go and look for something else instead of being encouraged to dig. That’s because mice are precise foragers that can smell seeds in the ground and explore exactly where a seed is. However, they can’t do that because everything smells like seeds. This misinformation tactic could work well in other crop systems. Indeed, any animal that finds food by smell is potentially vulnerable to us manipulating that smell and undermining their ability to search.”
Finn Parker said, “The camouflage appeared to last until after the seeds germinated, which is the period of vulnerability when wheat needs to be protected.”
He added that camouflage treatment could be an effective solution for wheat growers, given wheat’s brief vulnerability.
He said, “Most mouse damage occurs when seeds are sown up to germination, just under two weeks later. Mice can’t evolve resistance to the method either because it uses the same odor that mice rely on to find wheat seeds.”
The majority of mouse damage happens between the time seeds are sown and germination or slightly under two weeks later.
In May 2021, 60 plots on a farm 10 kilometers northwest of Pleasant Hills, New South Wales, served as the testing ground for five treatments.
The other three treatments were controls, while two used the wheat germ oil solution.
Similar results were achieved by all control treatments, which sustained noticeably more significant damage than treated plots.
A reasonably affordable by-product of milling is wheat germ oil. The scientists claimed that their solution, consisting of diluted wheat germ oil in water, provides a safe, long-lasting substitute for pesticides and baits.
“If people want to control mice but can’t get numbers down low enough, our technique can be a potent alternative to pesticides or add value to existing methods.” Dr Price said.
The research could aid wheat farmers at a crucial time.
The number of mice is increasing, and wheat is sown in the middle of fall.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the Australian wheat market is anticipated to hit a record high of $15 billion this fiscal year.
Wheat producers may benefit from the research at this critical time. Wheat is sown in the middle of fall, and mouse populations are increasing.
The next step is for the researchers to determine how diluted the concentration can be and still effectively repel mice and how frequently the solution needs to be sprayed on a crop to maintain its efficacy.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the Australian wheat market is anticipated to hit a record high of $15 billion this fiscal year.
(From left) Emily Mackie, Dr Andrew Barrow and Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa.
Newswise — Weed killers of the future could soon be based on failed antibiotics.
A molecule which was initially developed to treat tuberculosis but failed to progress out of the lab as an antibiotic is now showing promise as a powerful foe for weeds that invade our gardens and cost farmers billions of dollars each year.
While the failed antibiotic wasn’t fit for its original purpose, scientists at the University of Adelaide discovered that by tweaking its structure, the molecule became effective at killing two of the most problematic weeds in Australia, annual ryegrass and wild radish, without harming bacterial and human cells.
“This discovery is a potential game changer for the agricultural industry. Many weeds are now resistant to the existing herbicides on the market, costing farmers billions of dollars each year,” said lead researcher Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa from the University of Adelaide’s Waite Research Institute.
“Using failed antibiotics as herbicides provides a short-cut for faster development of new, more effective weed killers that target damaging and invasive weeds that farmers find hard to control.”
Researchers at the University’s Herbicide and Antibiotic Innovation Lab discovered there were similarities between bacterial superbugs and weeds at a molecular level.
They exploited these similarities and, by chemically modifying the structure of a failed antibiotic, they were able to block the production of amino acid lysine, which is essential for weed growth.
“There are no commercially available herbicides on the market that work in this way. In fact, in the past 40 years, there have been hardly any new herbicides with new mechanisms of action that have entered the market,” said Dr Andrew Barrow, a postdoctoral researcher in Dr Soares da Costa’s team at the University of Adelaide’s Waite Research Institute.
It’s estimated that weeds cost the Australian agriculture industry more than $5 billion each year.
Annual ryegrass in particular is one of the most serious and costly weeds in southern Australia.
“The short-cut strategy saves valuable time and resources, and therefore could expedite the commercialisation of much needed new herbicides,” said Dr Soares da Costa.
“It’s also important to note that using failed antibiotics won’t drive antibiotic resistance because the herbicidal molecules we discovered don’t kill bacteria. They specifically target weeds, with no effects on human cells,” she said.
It’s not just farmers who could reap the benefits of this discovery. Researchers say it could also lead to the development of new weed killers to target pesky weeds growing in our backyards and driveways.
“Our re-purposing approach has the potential to discover herbicides with broad applications that can kill a variety of weeds,” said Dr Barrow.
Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa and her team are now looking at discovering more herbicidal molecules by re-purposing other failed antibiotics and partnering up with industry to introduce new and safe herbicides to the market.
Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council through a DECRA Fellowship and a Discovery Project awarded to Dr Tatiana Soares da Costa.
The first author on the paper is Emily Mackie, a PhD student in Dr Soares da Costa’s team, who is supported by scholarships from the Grains and Research Development Corporation and Research Training Program. Co-authors include Dr Andrew Barrow, Dr Marie-Claire Giel, Dr Anthony Gendall and Dr Santosh Panjikar.
The Waite Research Institute stimulates and supports research and innovation across the University of Adelaide and its partners that builds capacity for Australia’s agriculture, food, and wine sectors.
El Picudo del Botón del Hibisco (Anthonomus testaceosquamosus Linell, Coleoptera: Curculionidae)
Alexandra M Revynthi, German Vargas, Yisell Velazquez Hernandez, Paul E Kendra, Daniel Carrillo y Catharine M Mannion
Introducción
El picudo del botón del hibisco (Anthonomus testaceosquamosus Linell, Coleoptera: Curculionidae) es una plaga del hibisco (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L., Malvales: Malvaceae), originaria del noroeste de México y sur de Texas, que fue visto en Florida por primera vez en mayo del 2017 (Skelley y Osborne 2018). El incremento de las poblaciones del picudo entre 2019 y 2020 impactó negativamente la industria del hibisco en el sur de Florida durante el periodo de empaque en la primavera, lo que resultó en grandes pérdidas económicas. Florida lidera la producción de hibisco a nivel nacional, donde la mayoría de la producción en viveros ocurre en el sur del estado. Aproximadamente entre el 20 y el 25% de las plantas vendidas en el condado de Miami-Dade son hibiscos, donde el valor del mercado de plantas ornamentales fue de 697 millones (precio en el vivero) en 2017 (Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos, 2017). El picudo del botón del hibisco es una plaga regulada por la División de Industria Vegetal del Departamento de Agricultura y Servicios al Consumidor (FDACS-DPI, por sus siglas en inglés). De acuerdo con esta designación, cualquier vivero que sea identificado con la presencia de la plaga debe firmar y seguir un acuerdo de cumplimiento con el FDACS-DPI para reducir las probabilidades de dispersión del picudo. El propósito de este documento es proveer información acerca de esta importante plaga a productores de viveros y al público interesado.
Identificación
El picudo del botón del hibisco (Orden Coleoptera) pertenece a la familia de los picudos (Curculionidae) y a su vez pertenece al grupo de especies conocido como Anthonomus squamosus de la tribu Anthonomini. Este grupo de especies se caracteriza por tener insectos predominantemente cubiertos de escamas (Clark et al. 2019) (Figura 1). La longitud del cuerpo del adulto está entre 2,5 y 2,7 mm y el pico es de aproximadamente 1 mm de largo.
Figura 1. Adulto de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus, a) vista lateral y b) vista dorsal. Credit: Daniel Carrillo, UF/IFAS TREC
Las hembras se pueden distinguir de los machos mediante dos características, una es la protibia (el cuarto segmento del primer par de patas) y otra es el abdomen. En la protibia las hembras tienen un uncus apical y subapical, prominencia interior-marginal (mucron) (estructura en forma de espuela del lado interno de la tibia) (Figura 2a), que está ausente en los machos (Figura 2b). Adicionalmente, la parte posterior del quinto tergito abdominal (margen del quinto segmento abdominal) es recto en las hembras (Figura 3a, derecha) y curvo en los machos (Figura 3b, izquierda). La validez de estos caracteres fue confirmada mediante la disección de la genitalia de los picudos (Figura 4).
Figura 2. Protibia de la hembra (a) y del macho (b) de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus. La prominencia interior-marginal subapical (circulo; mucron) está presente en hembras, pero está ausente en machos. Credit: Daniel Carrillo, UF/IFAS TRECFigura 3. a) Abdomen del macho y b) de la hembra de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus. La parte posterior del quinto tergito en las hembras es recto (a, flecha a la derecha) y es curvo en machos (b, flecha a la derecha). Las hembras (a, flecha a la izquierda) tienen un pequeño pigidio (última parte del cuerpo que está expuesto cuando los élitros están en reposo) en comparación con los machos (b, flecha a la izquierda). Credit: Daniel Carrillo, UF/IFAS TRECFigura 4. Genitalia a) de la hembra y b) del macho de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus. Credit: Daniel Carrillo, UF/IFAS TREC
Los huevos son blancos cuando están recién depositados y se tornan amarillos al madurar (Figura 5). Las larvas del picudo del hibisco son de un color entre transparente y amarillo, tienen una cápsula cefálica bien definida y están desprovistas de patas torácicas (Figura 6). El tamaño de las larvas varía con el tamaño de los botones florales en donde se encuentran. En general, los botones florales grandes contienen larvas de mayor tamaño.
Figura 5. Múltiples huevos son depositados por las hembras de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus en las anteras del hibisco y dentro del botón floral. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TREC Figura 6. a) Instar temprano y b) tardío de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus alimentándose de polen. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TREC
Rango de hospederos y daño
Los picudos pertenecientes al grupo de Anthonomus squamosus están asociados con especies de plantas de las familias Asteraceae o Malvaceae. El picudo del botón del hibisco, A. testaceosquamosus ha sido asociado con múltiples especies de plantas, todas dentro de la familia Malvaceae (Tabla 1).
Tabla 1. Especies de plantas en las cuales el picudo del botón del hibisco Anthonomus testaceosquamosus Linell ha sido encontrado (Clark et al. 2019).
Los adultos del picudo se alimentan principalmente de botones florales, tallos y en menor medida de hojas del hibisco. Las hembras ovipositan en los botones florales y las larvas se desarrollan en el interior del botón, causando la caída de este antes de la floración. Los síntomas incluyen perforaciones en los tallos y botones a punto de abrir (Figura 7), y caída severa de botones bajo condiciones de alta densidad de la plaga. El daño producido por la alimentación en las hojas no es muy llamativo. En viveros del sur de Florida, las variedades rosadas y amarillas parecen ser más susceptibles al picudo que las rojas y otras variedades (Tabla 2). La variedad rosada ‘Painted Lady’ y la variedad amarilla ‘Sunny Yellow’ son reportadas como las variedades más susceptibles. La variedad roja ‘President Red’ es reportada como la más resistente.
Tabla 2. Variedades de hibisco cultivadas en Florida que han sido encontradas infestadas por el picudo del botón del hibisco (Anthonomus testaceosquamosus).
En Florida, otra especie del grupo Anthonomus squamosus, Anthonomus rubricosus, ha sido reportada infestando algodón y plantas de hibisco (Clark et al. 2019; Loiácono et al. 2003). Sin embargo, no existen reportes recientes de su establecimiento en plantas de hibisco en Florida. Este picudo es similar en tamaño al picudo del hibisco, pero es de color café. El genero Anthonomus incluye varias especies de gran importancia agrícola, como el picudo del algodonero, Anthonomus grandis. Las plagas del género Anthonomus más importantes desde el punto de vista económico en Florida son el picudo del chile Anthonomus eugenii y el picudo de la acerola Anthonomus macromalus. El picudo del chile ataca plantas de la familia Solanaceae, particularmente chiles (Capsicum spp.) (Capinera 2002), mientras que el picudo de la acerola ataca la cereza de Barbados (Malpighia glabra, Familia: Malpighiaceae) (Hunsberger y Peña 1998).
Figura 7. Daños causados por la alimentación de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus en hibisco a) botón floral con adulto del picudo y b) daño en peciolo. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TREC
La caída de los botones también puede ser causada por la mosquita de la flor (Contarinia maculipennis, Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), que puede ser confundida con daño por parte del picudo del botón del hibisco (Mannion et al. 2006). Ambas plagas pueden infestar la misma planta de hibisco; sin embargo, rara vez se encuentran en el mismo botón floral. Botones infestados con la mosquita de la flor tienen internamente múltiples larvas de mosca de color entre blanco y amarillo que saltan cuando son molestadas. Las larvas de la mosquita de la flor no tienen una cabeza distinguible y patas, y necesitan abandonar el botón para empupar en el suelo, mientras que la larva del picudo del hibisco tiene cabeza y empupa dentro del botón floral (Figuras 8 y 9).
Figura 8. a) Larva del picudo del botón del hibisco, Anthonomus testaceosquamosus y b) larva de la mosquita de la flor, Contarinia maculipennis. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TRECFigura 9. Larva de la mosquita de la flor (Contarinia maculipennis) saliendo del botón floral. La foto muestra el daño causado por la alimentación de las larvas en el botón floral. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TREC
Biología
Las hembras del picudo del botón del hibisco ovipositan entre 3 y 5 huevos en un solo botón floral y cerca de las anteras (Figura 4). Una vez que las larvas eclosionan se alimentan de polen y permanecen dentro del botón floral hasta alcanzar el estado adulto. Debido a una alta incidencia de canibalismo en el estado de larva, no todos los huevos depositados en un botón llegan al estado adulto; sin embargo, varios adultos pueden emerger de un solo botón floral. A una temperatura de 26,7 °C (8 0°F), los huevos pueden emerger entre 2 y 3 días. El estado de larva tiene tres instares y puede durar, en promedio, 10 días. El estado de pupa dura entre 2,9 a 4,2 días (Figura 10). El desarrollo entre el estado de huevo y el adulto puede tomar entre 12,8 y 15,3 días, en el cual se ha observado una sobrevivencia de hasta el 90%. La longevidad de los adultos tiene un rango entre 13 y 169 días, y los machos viven por más tiempo que las hembras. Cuando los adultos son alimentados solamente usando polen pueden sobrevivir hasta 52 días. Los adultos sobreviven un promedio de 28 días sin acceso a alimento, pero con acceso a agua, y pueden sobrevivir 16 días sin alimento y sin agua. La proporción sexual es de 1:1 hembras por machos (Revynthi et al. 2022).
Figura 10. Pupa de Anthonomus testaceosquamosus. Credit: Juleysy Rodríguez y Yisell Velázquez Hernández, UF/IFAS TREC
Temperaturas extremas ya sean bajas o altas parecen ser perjudiciales para el desarrollo de las larvas del picudo. En experimentos de laboratorio en la Universidad de Florida, a 10 °C (50 °F) no hubo eclosión de huevos, mientras que a 15 °C (59 °F) hubo eclosión 12 días luego de la oviposición, pero las larvas no se alimentaron y eventualmente murieron. De manera similar, a 38,8 °C (93 °F) los huevos eclosionaron luego de 5,6 días, pero ninguna larva llegó al estado de pupa (Revynthi et al. 2022). En el sur de Florida, el pico de actividad de este picudo ha sido observado desde marzo hasta junio con bajas poblaciones desde septiembre hasta febrero.
Desarrollo de técnicas de manejo de plagas y monitoreo
Los programas de manejo integrado de plagas dirigidos al picudo del botón del hibisco contienen una combinación de prácticas culturales, sanitización, control químico y control biológico. La rotación de cultivos con especies no hospederas ha sido recomendada para interrumpir los ciclos de población (Bográn et al. 2003). La sanitización incluye la recolección y destrucción sistemática de todos los botones caídos al suelo. A pesar de que la sanitización es una labor de alta demanda de mano de obra, ha sido propuesta como una de las prácticas más eficientes en el manejo de esta plaga puesto que evita la reinfestación de las plantas con nuevos adultos (Bográn et al. 2003). Actualmente no existen insecticidas registrados específicamente para el control del picudo del botón del hibisco en Florida, pero los cultivadores pueden usar legalmente insecticidas que están registrados para su uso en viveros. La FDACS-DPI tiene una lista de insecticidas recomendados para el control de esta plaga. Las pruebas de eficacia de varios insecticidas registrados para picudos/coleópteros y otras plagas especificas en plantas ornamentales están actualmente en desarrollo. Hasta la fecha no existen reportes de enemigos naturales del picudo del botón del hibisco, pero en la actualidad se está estudiando el potencial uso de hongos y de nematodos entomopatógenos como agentes de control biológico.
Varias especies dentro del género Anthonomus son atraídas hacia un grupo de atrayentes comerciales que consisten en feromonas de agregación del macho y compuestos volátiles vegetales (Tumlinson et al. 1969; Eller et al. 1994; Innocenzi et al. 2001). Existen cuatro componentes de la feromona sintética de agregación del macho, también conocidos como Grandlures (I-IV). En la actualidad se está estudiando el uso de trampas de feromonas utilizadas ampliamente en otras especies de Anthonomus, para el caso del picudo del botón del hibisco. En Texas, las trampas de feromonas desarrolladas para el picudo del algodonero (A. grandis) fueron evaluadas, sin éxito, en la captura de adultos del picudo del botón del hibisco (Bográn et al. 2003). Sin embargo, los autores plantean que esto pudo haber ocurrido ante una ubicación temprana de las trampas de acuerdo con la temporada de aparición de los adultos. Las trampas pegajosas amarillas son las trampas más atractivas para varias especies de Anthonomus (Cross et al. 2006; Szendrei et al. 2011; Silva et al. 2018). Actualmente se adelantan pruebas de campo que estudian el poder atrayente de las feromonas del picudo del algodonero (A. grandis) y del picudo del chile (A. eugenii), y para poder identificar el mejor tipo de trampa para capturar los adultos del picudo del botón del hibisco. Es necesario un programa de manejo integrado de plagas que implemente las estrategias mencionadas anteriormente para regular las poblaciones de A. testaceosquamosus en Florida y disminuir el impacto económico causado por esta especie.
Referencias
Bográn CE, Helnz KM, Ludwlg S (2003) The bud weevil Anthonomus testaceosquamosus, a pest of tropical hibiscus. In: SNA Research Conference Entomology. pp 147–149
Capinera, J. L. (2002). Pepper weevil Anthonomus eugenii Cano (Insecta: Coleoptera: Curculionidae). Featured Creatures, University of Florida EENY-278
Clark WE, Burke HR, Jones RW, Anderson RS (2019) The North American Species of the Anthonomus squamosus Species-Group (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Curculioninae: Anthonomini). Coleopt Bull 73:773. https://doi.org/10.1649/0010-065X-73.4.773
Cross JV., Hesketh H, Jay CN, et al (2006) Exploiting the aggregation pheromone of strawberry blossom weevil Anthonomus rubi Herbst (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Part 1. Development of lure and trap. Crop Prot 25:144–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2005.04.002
Eller FJ, Bartelt RJ, Shasha BS, et al (1994) Aggregation pheromone for the pepper weevil, Anthonomus eugenii cano (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): Identification and field activity. J Chem Ecol 20:1537–1555. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02059879
Hunsberger A, Pena JE (1998) Biodynamics of Anthonomus macromalus (Coleoptera : Curculionidae ), a weevil pest of Barbados Cherry in Florida. Florida Entomol 334–338
Innocenzi PJ, Hall DR, Cross JV. (2001) Components of male aggregation pheromone of strawberry blossom weevil, Anthonomus rubi Herbst. (Coleoptera: Curculionidae). J Chem Ecol 27:1203–1218. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010320130073
Loiácono MS, Marvaldi AE, Lanteri AA (2003) Description of larva and new host plants for Anthonomus rubricosus Boheman (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Argentina. Entomol News 114:69–74
Mannion C, Hunsberger A, Gabel K, et al (2006) Hibiscus bud midge (Contarinia maculipennis)
Revynthi, A.M.; Velazquez Hernandez, Y.; Canon, M.A.; Greene, A.D.; Vargas, G.; Kendra, P.E.; Mannion, C.M. 2022. Biology of Anthonomus testaceosquamosus Linell, 1897 (Coleoptera: Curculionidae): A New Pest of Tropical Hibiscus. Insects. 13. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13010013
Silva D, Salamanca J, Kyryczenko-Roth V, et al (2018) Comparison of trap types, placement, and colors for monitoring Anthonomus musculus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) adults in highbush blueberries. J Insect Sci 18:. https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/iey005
Skelley PE, Osborne LS (2018) Pest Alert Anthonomus testaceosquamosus Linell, the hibiscus bud weevil, new in Florida. Gainesville
Szendrei Z, Averill A, Alborn H, Rodriguez-Saona C (2011) Identification and field evaluation of attractants for the cranberry weevil, Anthonomus musculus Say. J Chem Ecol 37:387–397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9938-z
Tumlinson JH, Hardee DD, Gueldner RC, et al (1969) Sex pheromones produced by male boll weevil: Isolation, identification, and synthesis. Science 166:1010–1012. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.166.3908.1010
United States Department of Agriculture U (2017) Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold Including Food Marketing Practices and Value-Added Products : 2017 and 2012 Census of Agriculture 2017. 275–302
Este documento ENY-2069S, hace parte de la serie de Extensión del Departamento de Entomología y Nematología de la Universidad de la Florida, UF/IFAS. La fecha original de publicación es agosto de 2021. Por favor visite la página web de EDIS en https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu para la versión de soporte de esta publicación.
About the Authors
Alexandra M. Revynthi, Departamento de Entomología y Nematología, UF/IFAS Centro de Investigación y Educación Tropical; German Vargas, Departamento de Entomología y Nematología, UF/IFAS Centro de Investigación y Educación Tropical; Yisell Velazquez-Hernández, Departamento de Entomologia y Nematologia, UF/IFAS Centro de Investigacin y Educacioón Tropical; Paul E. Kendra, USDA ARS, Estación Experimental en Horticultura Subtropical; Daniel Carrillo, Departamento de Entomologia y Nematologia, UF/IFAS Centro de Investigación y Educación Tropical; y Catharine M Mannion, Departamento de Entomología y Nematología, UF/IFAS Centro de Investigación y Educación Tropical.
Banana growers managing over 600 commercial banana properties along the east coast of Australia are being armed with an arsenal of tools to guard against significant pests and diseases through a $1.7M collaboration.
Delivered through Hort Innovation and led by the Australian Banana Growers’ Council, the surveillance and grower education program provides an array of tools to protect the $500 million banana industry and educate growers on how to recognise early disease symptoms and manage diseases more effectively. This has been through farm visits, workshops, grower groups and other resources such as videos that provide tips for detecting new infections.
Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield said addressing the threat of significant banana diseases, as well improving grower capacity to manage them, is a critical priority for the banana industry.
“Research shows if Panama TR4 alone was to spread widely it would cost the Australian banana industry $5 billion over ten years. The challenge of having to deal with TR4 in combination with other significant banana diseases on a property would have an even more serious impact.”
TR4 is currently contained to Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is considered the biggest threat to Australian banana growers. However, if left unchecked, there are a range of other pests and diseases that could be just as devastating to the banana industry and the communities it supports. Losses through on-farm management of leaf diseases (yellow Sigatoka and Leaf Speckle) run to tens of millions of dollars per year and, if Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) were to spread in Far North Queensland, losses have been estimated at $16-20 million per year.
“That is why the banana industry is investing its levies heavily into a suite of programs through Hort Innovation that reduce the spread and impact of pests and diseases and ensure any new incidents are picked up as quickly as possible,” Mr Fifield said.
Australian Banana Growers’ Council project leader Rosie Godwin said the goal of the surveillance and education project is to boost the banana industry’s ability to prevent, manage, and reduce the impact of biosecurity threats.
“The presence of Bunchy Top on a property, if left unchecked, can make a business unviable within 18 months. On top of that, Bunchy Top symptoms alongside heavy infestation of Leaf Spot and Leaf Speckle could mask symptoms of TR4 and reduce the efficacy of surveillance, detection and containment,” Dr Godwin said.
“By directly including growers and farm advisors in surveillance and biosecurity programs, we are supercharging our biosecurity efforts and increasing the likelihood of early detection. Banana growers know their own properties better than anyone else, so even a little bit of training goes a long way.”
Third-generation banana grower and ABGC director Andrew Serra, from Tolga in Far North Queensland, said the project provides growers with the tools they need to be on the front foot when it comes to protecting their property and the industry more broadly.
“The ABGC team provide invaluable surveillance and training for banana growers like myself. As far as I’m concerned, we have got more than enough to deal with when it comes to pests and diseases, particularly with TR4. If Banana Bunchy Top was detected in the major production areas of Far North Queensland on top of that, it could decimate our industry, let alone any other biosecurity threat not currently present in Australia.”
Mr Fifield will be speaking more about this project and other Hort Innovation investments for the banana industry at the Australian Banana Congress tomorrow at 8am.
New research shows how emphasizing collaboration and local knowledge in China can advance preparation for responding to invasive insects that could threaten North American tree species. Native to eastern Asia, the citrus longhorned beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) is one such species noted in the study, noted for its capacity to infest and kill live pecan trees (Carya illinoinensis). (Photo by Taiwan Waterbird Research Group, Changhua Coastal Conservation Action Alliance on Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Carolyn BernhardtPrevious research has shown that, between 2003 and 2012, insect pests affected more than 85 million hectares of forest worldwide, much of which was in temperate North America. Invasive insects tear through North American forest systems at such an alarming rate that the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in January that it would spend over $70 million on beefing up pest detection, surveillance, and control systems and safeguarding the U.S. nursery system in 2023. The funding supports 350 projects led by universities, states, federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, nonprofits, and Tribal organizations across 48 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico.And, for all the researchers working to prevent the spread of invasive pests and minimize their impact, studies that help anticipate and prepare for the arrival of invasives are just as crucial as conducting research that informs response measures.“Routinely, when an invasive pest shows up, the authorities perform a mad scramble, pour money on it, and [direct scientists] to do monitoring, assessment, and delineation,” says Jiri Hulcr, Ph.D., an associate professor with the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatic Sciences and the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida. The approach, he says, only works with some pests. “In most cases, we find out about the bug months—if not years—after it has already killed thousands of trees.” So, he and his team want to “get ahead of that curve.”For the past decade, Hulcr and his team have been committed to regrowing relationships across academics in China and the U.S. to better understand and, eventually, prevent the spread of invasive pests in both nations. But, despite a significant trade relationship, tension has mushroomed between China and the United States in recent years. And unfortunately, that very trade relationship helps drive the spread of invasive species in both countries.“I can tell you, China is receiving an equal amount of pests from us,” Hulcr says. “The biggest source of invasive species is trade with live plants and trade supported by wood products, like pallets. So, it’s not these ‘evil beetles’ against us. It’s us all buying stuff at an unprecedented rate.”In April, Hulcr and colleagues Yiyi Dong at UF and Jie Gao, Ph.D., at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a meta-analysis in Environmental Entomology that combed both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature published in China that reported on how insect species considered invasive in the U.S. interact with seven important North American commercial tree species planted in China.The non-peer-reviewed literature that’s published in China, also called “grey literature,” was crucial to the project, according to Huclr. “Everyone can do a full-text search on Google in English, but this grey data published in Chinese remain inaccessible to us in the U.S.,” he says. “We are picking the brains of thousands of people by studying the gray literature.”He also thinks the study helps fill gaps when resources aren’t available. “Lots of people are advising wisely to work with botanical gardens in China because they are already planting these ‘exotic’ North American trees, and we could potentially observe wood borers on that,” he says. But botanical garden managers use heavy pesticide spray and rarely analyze dead trees for pests before removing them. Instead, Hulcr and his team focused their meta-analysis on places where people plant trees and observe the tree’s lifespan, which includes noticing “interesting bugs,” such as schools, municipalities, and scientific institutions.
A meta-analysis by researchers at the University of Florida and the Chinese Academy of Sciences combed both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature published in China that reported on how insect species considered invasive in the U.S. interact with seven important North American commercial tree species planted in China. Illustrated here are the host tree species and the reports of their insect pests at the family level. Left bars represent host plant species, and right color bars represent families and orders of wood-boring insects. The width of each grey link reflects the number of times the insect species was reported on the corresponding host plant in the dataset from the study. (Image originally published in Dong et al 2023, Environmental Entomology)
The researchers found 60 unique wood borer records covering four orders, 39 genera, and 44 species. Longhorned beetles (Cerambycidae) were the most reported colonizers of North American trees, far eclipsing reports of bark beetles. But, of course, the scientists could not have possibly researched the dozens of North American tree species planted in China, so they chose seven that are important in the U.S. landscape and timber industries. “Those seven are likely to trigger regulatory action if a pest on those trees shows up,” says Hulcr.Finding so few bark beetle reports surprised Hulcr, but he thinks he understands where it comes from. “Big, fun-looking pests are reported much more commonly than little inconspicuous pests,” he says. Gaping tree holes and flashy beetles grab attention, but small beetles causing tree death make it difficult to link species to their impact. As a result, Hulcr notes that the grey literature “certainly has big biases, unquestionably.”Hulcr also acknowledges that this meta-analysis only scratches the surface of China’s information on how its insects interact with North American tree species. For example, the team could only sample literature that had been digitized.Chinese researchers, Hulcr says, possess extensive knowledge of American trees due to their efforts in the afforestation of fallow farmlands over the last century. “Sometimes [their approach is] misinformed because they are planting monocultures of one American species, which isn’t sustainable,” he says, “but in some cases they are establishing whole forests. Regardless, they are planting lots of American trees.”Collaborating with overseas colleagues can also help American researchers overcome obstacles to sampling infested trees. “Trees there die, and somebody puts [them] away. That’s not something I can sample and turn into data,” Hulcr says. “We have to work with people on the ground through the [local] educational system and institutions that are there and [can record] the deaths.”To Hulcr and his collaborators, the study represents a resourceful approach to efficiently investigating the potential threat of invasive wood borers to North American trees. It also highlights an untapped well of resources and the importance of digitizing and disseminating non-English literature.“We are helping bring literature to daylight that would otherwise go unnoticed,” Hulcr says, “and we are turning these scattered individual reports and turning them into data that is now accessible to the mainstream global community of scientists.”
W E B I N A R Successful biocontrol of the European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) in Georgia, and related experiences Friday, 26 May 2023 | 14.00 – 15.30 CEST Register now The One Country One Priority Product (OCOP)Secretariat at FAO Headquarters and the FAO Country Office in Georgia are pleased to announce a webinar on the successful biocontrol of the European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) in Georgia, with the addition of related experiences in the field. Join us on Friday, 26 May 2023, 14:00 -15:30 (CEST), for an expert discussion on solutions and strategies that are helping to stop the spread of pests and diseases through integrated pest management (IPM) products and practices. FAO launched the One Country One Priority Product initiative (OCOP) in September 2021 to contribute to the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 by promoting inclusive, profitable, and environmentally friendly agrifood systems through the sustainable development of Special Agricultural Products. Biocontrol is a case study of healthy, biodiversity-rich, resilient agriculture which will be promoted through the OCOP initiative. This webinar will serve as a forum to share knowledge, experiences and lessons learned in sustainable pest and pesticide management from different countries that are interested in implementing and promoting the OCOP initiative and its main objectives. AgendaTimeItem and presenter14.00 – 14.10 Opening remarks by Jingyuan Xia, Director, Plant Production and Protection Division (NSP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Raimund Jehle, Regional Programme Leader, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and FAO Representative for Georgia 14.10 – 14.15Key elements of the OCOP by Hafiz Muminjanov, Technical Adviser, NSP 14.15 – 14.20Overview of ENPARD Programme in Georgia by Javier Sanz Alvarez, Programme Coordinator, FAO-Georgia 14.20 – 14.30Overview of the biocontrol of pests in viticulture in different countries (Spain and France) by Julio Prieto Diaz, FAO/EU Technical Expert, Spain 14.30 – 14.40Technical and economic benefits of the biocontrol of Lobesiabotrana in Georgian vineyards by Alessandra Guidotti, International Agronomy and Extension Specialist, FAO-Georgia 14.40 – 14.50Georgian wine producer experience by Patrick Honnef, Director Winery Chateau Mukhrani 14.50 – 15.00The biocontrol of Drosophillasuzukii, an invasive pest of berries and cherries in Northern America and Europe by Gianfranco Anfora, Fondazione Edmund Mach, Italy 15.00 – 15.10Biological Control Tactics using Predatory Mites in Berry Crops by Oscar E. Liburd, University of Florida, United States of America 15.10 – 15.25 General discussion 15.25 – 15.30 Closing remarks by Raimund Jehle, Regional Programme Leader, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and FAO Representative for Georgia The webinar will be moderated by Hafiz Muminjanov.
For more information, please contact: OCOP@fao.org
Parthenium hysterophorus is a highly destructive weed that has crossed continents, and is spreading rapidly in both rural and urban landscapes across Pakistan.
A variety of methodologies have been used to control its spread but no single management option is adequate to manage parthenium. Therefore, there is a need to integrate various management options.
Successful management of this weed can only be achieved through an integrated approach with biological control as the key element.
The workshop started with welcoming remarks by Dr Naeem Aslam, Country Coordinator, PlantwisePlus programme. He welcomed the participants in the workshop and appreciated the support provided by the institution for strengthening the biocontrol programme for parthenium in Pakistan.
Serious socio-economic threat
He stated that Parthenium hysterophorus L. poses a serious environmental and socio-economic threat in Pakistan. He added that Parthenium hysterophorus was identified as a priority for control in Pakistan and an integrated control programme has been launched against this invasive weed.
Dr Philip Weyl, Weed Biological Control gave detailed presentation on rearing techniques for Listronotus setosipennis (Credit: CABI).
Speaking on the occasion, Abdul Rehman, Deputy Director Programme, CABI outlined the identification, impacts, and management of Parthenium hysterophorus.
He said CABI, through its Action on Invasive programme, has established a quarantine facility for the screening of complementary biological control agents not yet in Pakistan against parthenium and other invasive weeds in the country.
Importation of Listronotus setosipennis
With this quarantine facility, the importation of the Stem Boring Weevil, Listronotus setosipennis (Hustache) was possible and host range testing is underway. The biological control of parthenium in Pakistan is still at an early stage, and considerable effort is required to fill the management toolbox for this invasive weed.
Dr Philip Weyl, Head of Weed Biological Control, based at CABI’s centre in Switzerland, also gave a detailed presentation on rearing techniques for Listronotus setosipennis through rearing protocol and field visit.
The workshop embraced practical work on designing some initial research work on its biology, field release and impact evaluation to strengthen the biological control programme on parthenium. The participants were also trained on the rearing techniques of Listronotus setosipennis in the Quarantine IPPC-PEQ-2 Facility.
Participants from the workshop (Credit: CABI).
Additional information
Main image: Practical activity in the laboratory on the culturing of Listronotus setosipennis (Credit: CABI).
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