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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #363349
Research Project: Improved Biologically-Based Methods for Insect Pest Management of Crop Insect Pests

Location: Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research

Title: An acoustic trap to survey and capture two Neoscapteriscus species

Author
item RHODE, B - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item ALLEN, P - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item BENDA, N - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
item BRUN, A - NON ARS EMPLOYEE
item Mankin, Richard
item DALE, A - UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

Submitted to: Florida Entomologist
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/7/2019
Publication Date: 9/30/2019
Citation: Rhode, B., Allen, P., Benda, N., Brun, A., Mankin, R.W., Dale, A. 2019. An acoustic trap to survey and capture two Neoscapteriscus species. Florida Entomologist. 102(3):654-657. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.102.0316.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1653/024.102.0316

Interpretive Summary: Mole crickets cause significant economic damage to pastures in much of the southeastern US. Students and scientists at the University of Florida, engineers in private industry, and scientists at the USDA/ARS, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in Gainesville, Florida, developed an inexpensive acoustic trap to detect two species of mole cricket pests and tested its activity in North Florida pastures. The trap performed well in relation to previously used acoustic traps and can be used to further study the biology, ecology, and distribution of invasive mole crickets.

Technical Abstract: There is an extensive history of mole cricket integrated pest management research in Florida, USA , much of which has incorporated acoustic trapping as a monitoring tool. The acoustic trap design described in this report provides a method for surveying multiple Neoscapteriscus mole cricket species relatively autonomously at low cost, which can facilitate future efforts to study the biology, ecology, and distribution of invasive mole crickets. In a broader context, however, there remains considerable need to reduce the costs and simplify the technology of these and other traps based on inexpensive microcontroller platforms--not only for Neoscapteriscus species, but also for other pests that mate using either acoustic or vibrational communication.