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Title: Effects of photoperiod on boll weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) development, survival, and reproduction

Author
item Greenberg, Shoil
item Sappington, Thomas
item Adamczyk, John
item LIU, T-X - TAES WESLACO, TEXAS
item SETAMOU, M - TAMU WESLACO, TEXAS

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/22/2008
Publication Date: 12/12/2008
Citation: Greenberg, S.M., Sappington, T.W., Adamczyk Jr, J.J., Liu, T., Setamou, M. 2008. Effects of photoperiod on boll weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) development, survival, and reproduction. Environmental Entomology. 37(6):1396-1402.

Interpretive Summary: The boll weevil is a primary insect pest of cotton in non-eradicated areas of USA, Mexico, and South America. Control of it is critical to cotton production. Better knowledge of the boll weevil's biology, ecology, and behavior is required to develop environmentally-safe and efficient strategies for controlling them. In this study, we estimated effects of photoperiods on development, survival, feeding, and oviposition of boll weevil. These findings will be vital to an understanding of the boll weevil ecology and evaluation of its reproductive strategies. Knowledge of the photoperiod-dependent population growth potential can be very important in developing sampling protocols and timing insecticide applications.

Technical Abstract: Effects of photoperiod on development, survival, feeding and oviposition of boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, were assessed under five different photophases (24, 14, 12, 10, and 0 hours) and a constant 27 C temperature and 65% RH in the laboratory. Analyses of our results detected positive relationships between photoperiod and puncturing (mean numbers of oviposition and feeding punctures per day) and oviposition (oviposition punctures/oviposition+feeding punctures) activities, and the proportion of squares attacked by boll weevil females. When boll weevil females developed in the light: darkness cycles, they produced a significantly higher percentage of eggs yielding to adulthood than those developed in 24 h light or dark conditions. In the long light photoperiod (24:0 and 14:10 h), the number of female progeny was significantly higher and their development time was significantly shorter than those developed in short light photoperiod (0:24 and 10:14 h). Lifetime oviposition was significantly higher in long photoperiod. Life table calculations indicated that boll weevil populations developed in photoperiod 14:10 and 12:12 (L:D, h) will increase an average 2-fold each generation (R 0) compared with weevils developed in 24:0 and 10:14 h photoperiod, and 15-fold compared with those at 0:24 h. Knowledge of the photoperiod-dependent population growth potential is critical for understanding population dynamics.