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Emergence, Movement, and Pollen Feeding of Boll Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in the Mississippi Delta

D. D. Hardee, G. D. Jones and L. C. Adams


 
ABSTRACT

More boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, were captured after 20 May in 1995-1997 in grandlure-baited traps 1-5 km from cotton in Washington County, MS, than in traps near cotton. Even though few weevils were trapped from first bloom to mature boll (~ 1 July to 18 August), over 5X as many weevils were captured in traps 1-5 km away from cotton than in traps near cotton. This suggested that competition from male weevils feeding in cotton as well as cotton odors may have masked late season overwintering emergence. These results further suggested that overwintered weevils continue to emerge in low numbers into August, and that considerable movement of weevils (both overwintering and reproductive) occurred throughout the growing season. Numbers of overwintered weevils trapped from 23 March to 29 June 1996 were only 5% of those trapped during the same period in 1995. However, numbers captured from 18 August to 28 December 1996 equaled those for the same period in 1995, which showed the powerful ability of the boll weevil to rebuild from low numbers in a single season. Slightly over 50% of boll weevils responding to traps were females before July 1, these numbers increased to almost 100% females in mid-season, and declined to slightly over 50% females again in late season. Over 5,000 boll weevils were examined in 1996 for pollen grains in the mid-gut throughout the year, and over 300 taxa were identified. The majority of pollen in the mid-gut came from occurring Fagaceae (oak), Asteraceae (sunflower), Poaceae (grass), Malvaceae (mallow), Anacardiaceae (sumac), and Cheno-am (Chenopodium and Amaranthaceae, goosefoot and Amaranth families) depending on the time of year. These results indicate that non-cotton hosts are potentially important in survival of boll weevils throughout the year but not a factor in reproduction, since boll weevils have been found to reproduce only on cotton in the Mississippi Delta.



Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1999 Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 848 - 859
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

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Document last modified Monday, Jun 21 1999