Field Efficacy Trials of 1%Bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR against Sweet Potato Weevil

[Objectives]The paper was to verify the field efficacy of 1%bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR replacing organophosphorus GR against sweet potato weevil and its impact on the yield and quality of sweet potato.[Methods]A total of 4 field trials were conducted in Guangdong Province,including 1%bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR applied at the doses of 3,4 and 5 kg/667 m^(2),and 3%phoxim GR applied at the dose of 4 kg/667 m^(2).[Results]1%Bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR applied at the dose of 5 kg/667 m^(2)had excellent control effects on sweet potato weevil,with an average control effect of 77.60%,which was significantly higher than that of 3%phoxim GR applied at the dose of 4 kg/667 m^(2)(48.52%).And the average yield increase rate of sweet potato treated with 1%bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR reached 24.79%,significantly higher than 12.37%in the control group.[Conclusions]1%Bifenthrin·thiamethoxam GR should be evenly distributed on the ridge surface near sweet potato within 5-7 d after planting,and the recommended dosage is 5 kg/667 m^(2),which will have good control effect on sweet potato weevil and increase the yield of sweet potato.

Protection effect of the anthraquinones, cassiatorin and aurantio-obtusin from seeds of Senna tora against cowpea weevil attack

Objetive: To explore the potential insecticidal, ovipositor deterrent and antifeedant effects of ethyl acetate extract of the seeds of Senna tora(Syn. Cassia tora) against cowpea weevil(Callosobruchus maculatus).Method: The activities were evaluated using standard protocols.In these bioassays, the cowpea seeds were used directly as an insect feed. The activity of the extract and isolated compounds were tested at concentrations of 100, 200 and 300 μg/mL and compared to neem oil and cinnamaldehyde(as standard positive controls). Phytochemical analysis of the ethyl acetate extract was done through a number of chromatographic techniques and the structures of the isolated compounds were established through comprehensive spectroscopic analysis including 2 D-NMR and ESI-MS studies.Results: Fractionation of the active ethyl acetate extract resulted in the isolation of one known anthraquinone,aurantio-obtusin(1) and a novel compound that was named as cassiatorin(2). Compounds1 and 2 showed comparable insect antifeedant properties with the positive controls while their insecticidal and ovipositor deterrent effects were far superior to the standard controls.Conclusions: It is thus concluded that Senna tora extracts and the isolated compounds(1 and2) may be employed in the postharvest management of stored cowpea seeds and as other crop protectants.

Isolation, Molecular Identification and under Lab Evaluation of the Entomopathogenic Fungi <i>M. anisopliae</i>and <i>B. bassiana</i>against the Red Palm Weevil <i>R. ferrugineus</i>in Gaza Strip

Plant diseases generate challenging problems in commercial, agriculture and pose real economic threats to both conventional and organic farming systems. The red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) (RPW) is one of the most destructive pests of palms in the world. Nowadays, control methods revolve around treatments based on chemicals, biotechnological systems using semi-chemicals or the development of the sterile insect technique (hardly sustainable at this time) and biological control. Biological control as the use of natural microorganisms, extracted products from microorganisms or genetically improved to resist or eliminate of pathogens. Our aim was to evaluate the entomopathogenicity of indigenous Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae obtained in Gaza strip against larvae and adults of R. ferrugineus in order to identify indigenous strains potentially suitable for Red Palm Weevil biological control. B. bassiana & M. anisopliae were isolated from larvae and adult dead of RPW from different position of Gaza strip. Morphological analysis of the isolated fungi and molecular identification was determined using PCR technique. Also, the efficiency of the isolated fungi were evaluated under lab conditions and optimized as a biological agent. On the anther hand, the ability of treated RPW male to infect females is examined and calculated using Abbott's formula. Our results showed that the B. bassiana and M. anisopliae exhibited a good biological control agent against larvae and adults of RPW. The pathogenicity of the two most virulent isolates and the toxicity assay on larvae showed a highest mortality percentage nearly to 100% by 6 days after spraying the larvae with 3.4 × 108 spores/ml of B. bassiana. The mortality percentage reaches to 90% after spraying the larvae with 3.6 × 108 spores/ml of M. anisopliae. The mortality for the adults treated with pesticide arrives to 50% and the control group 10% at the same time. The results revealed that the infection of the adult males by Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) can be disseminated into the healthy population, after RPW treatment with B. bassiana and M. anisopliae. Our research concludes that B. bassiana and M. anisopliae locally isolated can be used as biological very effective.

THE BEHAVIOR OF ADULT OF OSIER WEEVIL

The behavior of osier weevil’s adult was studied at Lindian County in Heilongjiang Provillce in 1987-90. Osier weevil started emergence in the last ten days in July and peaked in the tirst and second ten days in August. Emergence on the susceptible species, such as Populus berolinensis, is 5 to 10 days earlier than that on the species of pest-resistance such as P. xiaohei. The adult move slowly, and it spreads or distributes mainly by crawling or by carrying of human beings. Osier weevil has a selection on host species tbr intake nourishment. According to the degree of being addicted, the series can be arranged as Populus berolinensis. Populus staline, Populus pesudo simonii× nigra,Populus xiaohei, Populus pachermis. The adult is likely to dwell on trunks and likely to eat slender and tender branches. Osier weevil makes a choice of host plants to lay eggs. The adult laid more eggs on the P.berolinensis than on P. xiaohei or willow. Most of the eggs laid on the young trees were distributed blow 2 m height. As tree’s age increase, the eggs’ spots get higher and higher. The eggs laid on the eastern and the southern sides of ti1e trunk are more than that laid on the West and the North. P.berolinensis and P. staline are the source trees of osier weevil in artificial Stands in Western Heilongjiang. Cutting the pest source tree, planting pest-resistance species, strengthening the quarantine of the forest plants, and controlling of the diseases and pests timely have very important significance to prevent the occtirrence and damage of this pest.

STUDY ON THE FORECAST OF PINE-CONE WEEVIL

Pine-cone weevil (Pissodes validirostris Gyll.) is one of the most important pests of Scots pine (Pinus syvestris var. mongolica). The quality and quantity of cone were damaged seriously by this pest. In order to provide a foundation for the control of this pest, the prediction of occurrence date of pine-cone weevil was studied with the methods of time of undergo, the effective accumulative temperture and the phenology forecast. The occurrence quantity was studied on the basis of the rules of the population dynamic and the environmental influences on this pest.

<i>Sitophilus</i>Weevil Reaction in Upland Rice Elite Lines

Insects of the genus Sitophilus are among the most destructive pests in rice storage, and the best strategy to control it is to use resistant genotypes. In this study, 26 upland rice elite lines were evaluated for Sitophilus weevil reaction on grain weight. The seeds were placed in plastic recipients stored in a room with temperature and lightning simulating a warehouse environment. The number of living weevils and the grain weight were obtained in two evaluations, one 35 days after storage, and the other 35 days after infestation. The lines differed statistically for number of living weevils and for grain weight in both evaluations. The correlations between these two characters were -?0.99 and -?0.47 for the first and the second evaluation (P < 0.05), respectively. The lines BRS Pepita, AB 112089 and AB 112090 were the most susceptible. Seventeen of the twenty-six elite lines were resistant in both evaluations and could be successfully used in upland rice breeding programs.

Intelligent IoT-Aided Early Sound Detection of Red Palm Weevils

Smart precision agriculture utilizes modern information and wireless communication technologies to achieve challenging agricultural processes.Therefore,Internet of Things(IoT)technology can be applied to monitor and detect harmful insect pests such as red palm weevils(RPWs)in the farms of date palm trees.In this paper,we propose a new IoT-based framework for early sound detection of RPWs using fine-tuned transfer learning classifier,namely InceptionResNet-V2.The sound sensors,namely TreeVibes devices are carefully mounted on each palm trunk to setup wireless sensor networks in the farm.Palm trees are labeled based on the sensor node number to identify the infested cases.Then,the acquired audio signals are sent to a cloud server for further on-line analysis by our fine-tuned deep transfer learning model,i.e.,InceptionResNet-V2.The proposed infestation classifier has been successfully validated on the public TreeVibes database.It includes total short recordings of 1754 samples,such that the clean and infested signals are 1754 and 731 samples,respectively.Compared to other deep learning models in the literature,our proposed InceptionResNet-V2 classifier achieved the best performance on the public database of TreeVibes audio recordings.The resulted classification accuracy score was 97.18%.Using 10-fold cross validation,the fine-tuned InceptionResNet-V2 achieved the best average accuracy score and standard deviation of 94.53%and±1.69,respectively.Applying the proposed intelligent IoT-aided detection system of RPWs in date palm farms is the main prospect of this research work.

Feasibility study on estimation of rice weevil quantity in rice stock using near-infrared spectroscopy technique

Thai rice is favored by large numbers of consumers of all continents because of its excellenttaste,fragrant aroma and fine texture.Among all Thai rice varieties,Thai Hommal rice is themost preferred.Classification of rice as premium quality requires that almost all grain kernels ofthe rice be perfectly whole with only a small quantity of foreign particles.Of all the foreignpartidles found in rice,rice weevils can wreck severest havoc on the quality and quantity of ricesuch thatpremiumitograde rice.It is widely known that ricemillers adoptt the birth and propagation of riceweevils,rice which end up inthebodyweevilscould beapproxilplied and thereby nooverdosantity of rice weevilsinboth Inear infrared spec-TRtroscop)spectrometer was usedinthis researchal 2500 nm.A total of 20 levels of riceweevil infestational mature rice weevils were appliedto 1680 rice samples.The spectral data and quantity of weevils are analyzed by partial leastsquare regression(PLSR)to establish the model for prediction.The results show that the modelis able to estimate the quantity of weevils in milled Hommali rice and brown Hommali rice withhigh Ral of 0.96 and 0.90,high RPD of 6.07 and 3.26 and smalil bias of 2.93 and 2.94,respectively.

Evaluation of <i>Piper guineense</i>in the Control of Cowpea Storage Weevils: Implication for Sustainable Credit Advancement

The Central Bank of Nigeria Anchored Borrowers Programme efforts geared towards massive production of cowpea and sustainable food security is challenged with post-harvest losses especially due to insect pest infestation in storage. So also, chemical method of pest control posed more health and ecological challenges than food insecurity. This work investigated the effect of Piper guineense on cowpea storage weevil at the agronomy laboratory of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu. Contact toxicity of P. guineense at 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1 g per 20 g of cowpea seeds in test tubes including a control was observed. The treatment materials exhibited significant efficacy from 24 hours after infestation. P. guineense at 1 g concentration significantly reduced the oviposition potential, egg hatching rate, holes and emergence of adult Callosobruchus maculatus on treated seeds. The powders caused chronic toxicity and inhibit development. All the responses were found to be concentration dependent. Increasing rates of P. guineense increased performance. The implication of these results is discussed and recommendations proffered.

Identification and Characterization of Bacterial Community Associated with the Chewed Feeding Waste of Red Palm Weevil in Infested Date Palm Trees

Red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), is considered one of the most damaging insect pests of date palms in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Large scale infestation of RPW to date palm trees leads to excessive feeding activity of the RPW larvae, which is carried out by microorganisms present within RPW and producing a wet fermenting material inside the trunk. Culture dependent-bacteria were isolated from feeding waste and identified by the sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene using 8F and 1492R universal primers. Among the culture-dependent isolated bacteria, 80% were identified by comparing 16S rRNA gene sequence in NCBI database, using BLAST program in GenBank. 85% of the identified bacteria were Gram-positive while the rest of them were Gram-negative. A high abundance of bacteria were from the Bacillaceae family and sixteen different species of Bacillus were identified in comparison with NCBI GenBank. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of identified bacterial strains have been submitted to GenBank. The phylogenetic relationship was studied using 16S rRNA gene sequences, the Gram-negative bacteria came in one clade while Gram-positive different Bacillus sp. and strains showed evolutionary closeness to each other and accordingly, they came in one major clade under three different sub-clades in the phylogenetic tree. The findings of new Bacillus strains in the natural habitat of the date plam trees in the Kingdom of Bahrain, pledge a vast area of research on RPW bio-control research arena.

Do rice water weevils and rice stem borers compete when sharing a host plant?

The rice water weevil (RWW) Lissorhoptrus oryzophilus Kuschel (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an invasive insect pest of rice Oryza sativa L. in China. Little is known about the interactions of this weevil with indigenous herbivores. In the present study, adult feeding and population density of the weevil, injury level of striped stem borer Chilo suppressalis (Walker) (Lepi-doptera: Pyralidae) and pink stem borer Sesamia inferens (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to rice, as well as growth status of their host plants were surveyed in a rice field located in Southeastern Zhejiang, China, in 2004 with the objective to discover interspecific interactions on the rice. At tillering stage, both adult feeding of the weevil and injury of the stem borers tended to occur on larger tillers (bearing 5 leaves) compared with small tillers (bearing 2~4 leaves), but the insects showed no evident competition with each other. At booting stage, the stem borers caused more withering/dead hearts and the weevil reached a higher density on the plants which had more productive tillers and larger root system; the number of weevils per tiller correlated nega-tively with the percentage of withering/dead hearts of plants in a hill. These observations indicate that interspecific interactions exist between the rice water weevil and the rice stem borers with negative relations occurring at booting or earlier developmental stages of rice.

Application of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in Early Detection of Red Palm Weevil:(Rhynchophorus ferrugineus)Infestation in Date Palm

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the leading date producing countries. Unfortunately, this important fruit crop is under great threat from the red palm weevil(RPW)(Rhynchophorus f errugineus), which is a highly invasive pest. Several techniques, including visual inspection, acoustic sensors, sniffer dogs, and pheromone traps have been tried to detect the early stages of a RPW infestation; however, each method has suffered certain logistical and implementation issues. We have applied laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) for the early detection of RPW infestation. Through the analysis of the observed LIBS spectra of different infested and healthy samples, we have found presence of Ca, Mg, Na, C, K elements and OH, CN molecules. The spectra also reveal that with the population growth of the pest, the intensity of Mg and Ca atomic lines in LIBS spectra increases rapidly. Similar behavior is observed in the molecular lines of LIBS spectra. The obtained results indicate that the LIBS technique can be used for the early detection of RPW infestation without damaging the date palms.

Integrated biological control of water hyacinths, Eichhornia crassipes by a novel combination of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella (Valenciennes, 1844), and the weevil, Neochetina spp.

The efficacy of grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella (Cyprinidae) and weevils Neochetina spp. (Curculionidae) to control the aquatic weed, water hyacinth, is investigated in a square net cage (happas) setting at a farm in Cuddalore District, South India. This novel combination of insects and fish is found to be superior to individual treatments for controlling the weed growth within 110 d. The biomass of the weed, number of plants, percentage of flowered plants and chlorophyll contents were studied. The weed biomass is reduced from 5 kg (day 1) to 0.33 kg (day 110) when exposed to grass carp and weevils. The number of plants is reduced to 0.75 in grass carp and weevil exposed happas, while it is 741.5 in the control. The mean number of leaves per plant is also reduced. In addition, the chlorophyll a and b are significantly reduced in happas exposed to the combination of fish and insects when compared to the other treatments. Based on the results of this study, we consider the combined use of grass carp and weevils to be more efficient and sustainable for managing water hyacinths than the use of these organisms individually.