ABSTRACT

The study was conducted at the AG-CARES farm in Lamesa, Texas to quantify the seasonal activity patterns of the western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), and cotton fleahoppers, Pseudatomoscelis seriates (Reuter). Thrips infestation started from cotyledon stage. Thrips showed two distinct peak populations, one at 1-2 true leaf stage (20 DAP) and another at flowering stage (82-96 DAP). In the first peak, thrips numbers reached up to 6.1 total thrips per plant and the number slowly declined as the plant matured and began squaring. However, once cotton started flowering (75 DAP), thrips population began to grow and attained the second peak in the second week of August (96 DAP); the second peak was larger than the first peak. Fleahopper activity began 44 days after planting and showed only one peak in early square stage (103 DAP). Seasonal average fleahoppers were found significantly higher in late-planted cotton (2705 per acre) compared with that in timely planted cotton (1118 per acre). The tillage system and variety did not have a significant influence on abundance pattern of thrips or fleahoppers. Visual sampling method detected the highest abundance of fleahoppers (37,851 per acre) followed by beat bucket (17,086 per acre), drop cloth (8,378 per acre), vacuum (951 per acre), and sweepnet (798 per acre) sampling.