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Dispersal Patterns and Daily Soil Emergence Activity of Phyllophaga capillata (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae) in Soybeans in Central Brazil

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Abstract

Mark-release-recapture studies have been used to evaluate the dispersal ability of different insect species. In the field, we evaluated the dispersal ability of the soil pest species Phyllophaga capillata (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae) in soybean (Glycine max) crops, and the daily soil emergence activity of this species under controlled conditions. Field studies were conducted on a soybean seed production farm in Planaltina/DF, Brazil. On four dates, adults of P. capillata were collected, sexed, marked and released in a soybean plot (~ 230 ha). Twelve light traps were set in three concentric circles, with four traps each, at distances of 50, 150 and 250 m from the point of adult release. Under controlled conditions, groups of adults (males and females) were separated into pots containing soil, and the flight ability of the specimens was evaluated daily for 72 h. The average recapture rate of adults was 1.93% for the four collection dates. The highest recapture rate was observed at a distance of 50 m, at the beginning and middle of the swarming period, and at 250 m at the end of the swarm. Males, in general, were more active than females and reached the greatest distance of displacement (250 m). Most specimens (69.5% of males and 52.9% of females) were prone to leave the ground on the three consecutive days of the study. These results provide insights for understanding the dispersal patterns of this pest species suggesting that distances of less than 250 m may allow the dispersal of this pest between contiguous farms within the agricultural landscape.

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Data Availability

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the University of Brasília, the Graduate Program in Ecology, and the Embrapa Cerrados for the infrastructure made available for this study. This study was financed by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and provided scholarships to the first author. We thank Marcio Moisés Binotti and Daltro Iang for allowing the experiments on their property (Fazenda Sementes Três Pinheiros) and Juliane Evangelista Neto, Mateus Souza Sanches, Hugo Gomes Vieira, and Júlia Dias Laumann for their great help in the field and in the laboratory.

Funding

MRF has a CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) fellowship (process # 310873/2021-5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasília (UnB), Campus Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil

    Marcus Vinícius Celani Rocha & Marina Regina Frizzas

  2. Embrapa Cerrados, Caixa Postal 08223, Planaltina, Brasília, DF, 73310-970, Brazil

    Charles Martins de Oliveira

Authors
  1. Marcus Vinícius Celani Rocha
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  2. Charles Martins de Oliveira
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  3. Marina Regina Frizzas
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception, design and writing of this manuscript. Field work, specimen preparation and data collection were performed by MVCR and CMO. Data analysis was performed by CMO.

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Correspondence to Charles Martins de Oliveira.

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Rocha, M.V.C., Oliveira, C.M. & Frizzas, M.R. Dispersal Patterns and Daily Soil Emergence Activity of Phyllophaga capillata (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae) in Soybeans in Central Brazil. J Insect Behav 36, 157–167 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-023-09831-w

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