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K-State Today

February 17, 2012

Entomologists publish on regional monitoring of an invasive insect pest

Submitted by David Margolies

Brian McCornack, assistant professor of entomology; Jeff Whitworth, associate of entomology; and colleagues from nine other Midwestern states published results of a multi-year regional trapping study to monitor movement of soybean aphid, an invasive pest.  

The soybean aphid, is an economically important pest of soybean in the United States but little is known about factors guiding migrating aphids and potential impacts of long distance flights on local outbreaks and management efforts. In 2005-2006 a suction trap network was established in 10 Midwest states to monitor the occurrence of migrating aphids. The objective of this study was to infer movement patterns of soybean aphids on a regional scale based on trap captures, and determine the suitability of certain statistical methods for future analyses.  Their article "Spatial Distribution of Aphis glycines (Hemiptera: Aphididae): A Summary of the Suction Trap Network" appeared in the February issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology.