Seasonal Migration Patterns of Ostrinia furnacalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) Across the Bohai Strait in Northern China

Abstract

Abstract The Asian corn borer (ACB), Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée), is a notorious polyphagous insect pest in China and other regions of East Asia. The long-distance flight behavior of the ACB moths, however, is not well understood, especially in the field conditions. In this study, nightly monitoring data for multiple years (2003–2017) on the long-distance flight of adults crossing the Bohai Strait in northern China, showed that a large number of the adults frequently flew across the Bohai Strait from May to September with the peak migrations usually occurred, followed in order by September, June, July, and May, and the number of southward migrants was larger than that of northward migrants. From May to September in 2010, 2011, and 2017, a subsample of trapped ACB females was dissected (879 individuals in 2010, 197 individuals in 2011, and 247 individuals in 2017), and the results showed that the sex ratio of the trapped ACB moths was unbiased each month from May to September. While the proportion of mated females in northward populations (May to July = 92.85 ± 4.86%) was significantly higher than that in southward population (August and September = 74.53 ± 8.55%) . The seasonal pattern in the proportion of sexually mature females was similar to the above proportion of mated females. We conclude that the ACBs have a strong propensity and ability for long-distance migration, although local dispersal is generally considered to be the primary movement of the ACB. These findings may be helpful to improve the forecasting systems and the pest management schemes for the ACBs.