Predicting aphid abundance on winter wheat using suction trap catches

Abstract

The relationship between the number of cereal aphids in flight (recorded by a national grid of suction traps in the Czech Republic) and their occurrence on winter wheat (in Prague) was established between 1999–2015. The flight of all the species was bimodal. Except for Rhopalosiphum padi, whose flight activity peaked in autumn, > 80% of individuals were trapped during April to mid-August. The species frequency was different between the winter wheat and aerial populations. R. padi, the dominant species in the trap catches, formed a small proportion of the aphids on the winter wheat, while Sitobion avenae and Metopolophium dirhodum, which were underrepresented in the suction traps, alternately dominated the populations on the wheat. The aphid abundance in the wheat stands was correlated with the suction trap catches in the “spring” peak (April to mid-August), and the maximum flight activity occurred 4–10 days after the peak in the number of aphids on the wheat. In contrast, the prediction of the aphid abundance in the wheat stands using the total suction trap catches until the 15th of June (the final date for the application of crop protection actions) was reliable only for M. dirhodum. Its maximum abundance on the wheat exceeded 40 aphids per tiller if the total suction trap catch until the 15th of June was ≥ 60 individuals per trap. The prediction of R. padi and S. avenae abundance using the suction trap catches was not reliable.