›› 2013, Vol. 56 ›› Issue (10): 1189-1202.doi:

• RESEARCH PAPERS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Monitoring of the population dynamics of Proxenus lepigone (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in North China and analysis of the source of its populations in northern Beijing

ZHANG Zhi1,3, ZHANG Yun-Hui1, JIANG Yu-Ying2, XIE AiTing3, WEI Shu-Jun4, CHENG Deng-Fa1,*, JIANG Jin-Wei5, ZHANG Fang-Mei1, PENG He1   

  1. (1. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Disease and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China; 2. National AgroTechnical Extension and Service Centre, Beijing 100125, China; 3. Beijing Plant Protection Station, Beijing 100029, China; 4. Institute of Plant and Environment Protection, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100197, China; 5. College of Plant Protection, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China)
  • Online:2013-10-20 Published:2013-10-20

Abstract: The Proxenus lepigone, a new pest insect of maize production in China, suddenly outbroke in the Huang-Huai-Hai plain in 2011, which threatened the production of summer maize. In order to know the population dynamics of P. lepigone to ascertain whether this species could migrate or not, monitoring on P. lepigone moths was respectively carried out in Luancheng, Hebei province, and the urban and Yanqing county of Beijing with searchlight traps and vertical-looking insect monitoring radar. The properties of their source were determined by combining the population sizes with the meteorological data. From this study, we clarified that the mature larvae with cocoon could overwinter in Yanqing, Beijing. During the monitoring season in 2012, the trapped moths summed up to 33 951, which included 3 generations. Population size of the 1st generation did not meet the normal distribution, and differences of catch sizes in sister-light traps suggested that P. lepigone is a migratory species. The environment was not suitable for P. lepigone in Yanqing, Beijing, but the average trapped catch size was higher than that of Luancheng, Hebei. Furthermore, the catch sizes were considered to be related to the direction of airflow and P. lepigone moths could be the targets of echoes of radar. These evidences approve that the trapped moths of the 1st generation must include the individuals migrating from surrounding regions and this species is supposed to be a facultative migratory species. This study provides some migration events for the future study of this species, which would benefit the related forecasting and integrated control.

Key words: Proxenus lepigone, searchlight trap, migration behavior, monitoring and forecasting, trajectory analysis, population source, North China