| Title: | A Novel Insect Overwintering Strategy: The Case of Mealybugs |
| Author(s): | Vercher R; Gonzalez S; Sanchez-Domingo A; Sorribas J; |
| Address: | "Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieria Agronomica y del Medio Natural, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain. Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera, s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2075-4450 (Print) 2075-4450 (Electronic) 2075-4450 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Insects have limited ability to regulate their body temperature and have thus required a range of strategies to withstand thermally stressful environments. Under unfavorable winter conditions, insects often take refuge under the soil surface to survive. Here, the mealybug insect family was selected for the study. Field experiments were performed in fruit orchards in eastern Spain. We used specifically designed floor sampling methods combined with fruit tree canopy pheromone traps. We found that in temperate climates, the large majority of the mealybugs move from the tree canopy to the roots during the winter, where they turn into belowground root-feeding herbivores to survive and continue underground the reproductive process. Within the rhizosphere, mealybugs complete at least one generation before emerging on the soil surface. The preferred area to overwinter is within 1 m in diameter around the fruit tree trunk, where more than 12,000 mealybug flying males per square meter can emerge every spring. This overwintering pattern has not previously been reported for any other group of insects showing cold avoidance behavior. These findings have implications at the winter ecology level but also at the agronomical level since treatments to control mealybug pests are, until now, only based on the fruit trees' canopy" |
| Keywords: | Planococcus citri Pseudococcus viburni belowground insect cold avoidance ground overwintering insect behaviour insect sexual dimorphism mealybugs biology root-feeding insect wintering; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEVercher, Rosa Gonzalez, Sandra Sanchez-Domingo, Adrian Sorribas, Juan eng Switzerland 2023/05/26 Insects. 2023 May 19; 14(5):481. doi: 10.3390/insects14050481" |
