Abstract

Three aphid species infest winter canola, Brassica napus L. fields in central Oklahoma and are serious pests: the cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae L., green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), and turnip aphid, Lipaphis pseudobrassicae (Davis). Mortality caused by parasitoids may be an important component of biological control of aphids in Oklahoma canola fields. Therefore, it is important to determine the effect of parasitoids on aphids in canola and the factors that affect it. We undertook a study during three consecutive growing seasons to: 1) estimate aphid suppression by parasitoids in each of 23 canola fields using cages that excluded natural enemies and cages that permitted access by parasitoids; and 2) evaluate how aphid parasitism in canola is related to the composition and configuration of the landscape surrounding each canola field. Parasitism was estimated using turnip aphid infested sentinel canola plants stationed in each field in autumn and in spring of each growing season. Two parasitoids with broad host ranges, Diaeretiella rapae (M’Intosh) and Aphelinus nigritus (Howard), parasitized turnip aphids in canola. There were fewer aphids and more parasitoids in cages that permitted access to parasitoids than in cages that excluded natural enemies. Partial redundancy analysis demonstrated that parasitism rate by D. rapae was positively related to landcover of wetlands and negatively related to contagion of patches. Parasitism by A. nigritus was positively but weakly associated with landcover of summer crops, but not with any other measured landscape variable. Wetlands in central Oklahoma agricultural landscapes apparently are habitat for aphid parasitoids from which they disperse to canola fields and parasitize aphids. Partial redundancy analysis showed that relative aphid density in fields was negatively related to parasitism by D. rapae. Results indicate that parasitoids suppress aphid infestations in canola fields and demonstrate potential for habitat management to improve biological control of aphids in canola.

Document Type

Article

Source Publication

Biological Control

Version

Published Version

Publication Date

2023

Volume

186

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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© The Author(s)

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