Design of a Computerised Flight Mill Device to Measure the Flight Potential of Different Insects

Several insect species pose a serious threat to different plant species, sometimes becoming a pest that produces significant damage to the landscape, biodiversity, and/or the economy. This is the case of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae), Semanotus laurasii Lucas (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), and Monochamus galloprovincialis Olivier (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), which have become serious threats to ornamental and productive trees all over the world such as palm trees, cypresses, and pines. Knowledge about their flight potential is very important for designing and applying measures targeted to reduce the negative effects from these pests. Studying the flight capability and behaviour of some insects is difficult due to their small size and the large area wherein they can fly, so we wondered how we could obtain information about their flight capabilities in a controlled environment. The answer came with the design of flight mills. Relevant data about the flight potential of these insects may be recorded and analysed by means of a flight mill. Once an insect is attached to the flight mill, it is able to fly in a circular direction without hitting walls or objects. By adding sensors to the flight mill, it is possible to record the number of revolutions and flight time. This paper presents a full description of a computer monitored flight mill. The description covers both the mechanical and the electronic parts in detail. The mill was designed to easily adapt to the anatomy of different insects and was successfully tested with individuals from three species R. ferrugineus, S. laurasii, and M. galloprovincialis.This research was partially funded by the Foundation of the Comunidad Valencia for Agroalimentary Research, Agroalimed, within the Project: Study of the flight behaviour and chromatic attraction in Rhynchophorus ferrugineus adults (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), and CICYT projects CTM2011-29691-C02-01 and TIN2011-28435-C03-01.Martí-Campoy, A.; Ávalos Masó, JA.; Soto Sánchez, AI.; Rodríguez-Ballester, F.; Martínez-Blay, V.; Perez Malumbres, MJ. (2016). Design of a Computerised Flight Mill Device to Measure the Flight Potential of Different Insects. Sensors. 16(4):1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/s16040485S12116

Assessing Insect Flight Behavior in the Laboratory: A Primer on Flight Mill Methodology and What Can Be Learned

Dispersal is a key component in the population ecology and dynamics of insects and remains one of the most difficult and intractable ecological processes to study in the field. As a consequence, many researchers have looked to laboratory methods for investigating the myriad factors that govern and impact an insect’s ability to move within its environment. A key tool in this effort since at least the early 1950s has been the insect flight mill. Nearly 260 studies have been published using flight mills covering 214 species in 61 families and 9 orders. This review explores the methodology and technology of tethered flight in insects using flight mills. The goal is to provide the reader with a historical context of the approach, an understanding of the available tools and technology, background on how best to apply these tools through a comparative lens, and to summarize the wide breadth of factors that have been explored to further our knowledge of insect flight behavior. Overall, it is hoped that the interested reader will understand the limits and benefits of flight mills and will know where to find the resources, and perhaps collaborators, to pursue this line of study

Flight performance and the factors affecting the flight behaviour of Philaenus spumarius the main vector of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe

[EN] The recent emergence of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe is a major threat to agriculture, including olive, almond and grape. Philaenus spumarius is the predominant vector of X. fastidiosa in Europe. Understanding vector movement is critical for developing effective control measures against bacterial spread. In this study, our goal was to set up a flight-mill protocol to assess P. spumarius flight potential and to analyse how different variables may affect its flight behaviour. We found that P. spumarius was able to fly approximate to 500 m in 30 min with a maximum single flight of 5.5 km in 5.4 h. Based on the observations, the flight potential of the females was higher in spring and autumn than in summer, and that of the males was highest in autumn. Moreover, we found that P. spumarius had a higher flight potential during the morning and the night than during the afternoon. Our results revealed that P. spumarius is likely to disperse much further than the established sizes of the infected and buffer zones designated by the EU. This knowledge on the flight potential of P. spumarius will be critical for improving management actions against P. spumarius and the spread of X. fastidiosa in Europe.The authors would like to acknowledge our colleagues Marina Morente, Maria Plaza and Martin Godefroid for their help in the development of the assays and the collection and maintenance of the insect colonies. The work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under grant AGL2017-89604-R. The present manuscript is part of Clara Lago's PhD thesis at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid funded under the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion fellowship: PRE2018-083307.Lago, C.; Garzo, E.; Moreno, A.; Barrios, L.; Martí-Campoy, A.; Rodríguez-Ballester, F.; Fereres, A. (2021). Flight performance and the factors affecting the flight behaviour of Philaenus spumarius the main vector of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe. Scientific Reports. 11(1):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96904-511411

Flight behaviour and migration of insect pests: Radar studies in developing countries (NRI Bulletin 71)

The use of radar to make direct observations of insects flying at altitude has provided many new insights into the phenomenon of long-range insect migration. In particular, the technique has produced a wealth of quantitative information on the spatial and temporal distribution of migrants in the air, on the direction, speed and duration of their displacements, and on their orientation behaviour. These data could not have been obtained by any other means, and it is probably fair to claim that our present knowledge of the magnitude and importance of high altitude insect movement stems very largely from radar observations. The pioneering field studies using the first specially designed entomological radar were undertaken in 1968, with the support of the UK Overseas Development Administration (ODA), and since that time ODA has been responsible for funding almost all of the applications of the technique in developing countries. The motivation for this work was the assumption that it was impossible to design efficient management strategies for migrant pest insects without a good knowledge of their migratory behaviour, and of the role which this played in their population dynamics. The ODA-funded studies thus focused primarily on pest species, and were carried out by the Radar Entomology Unit of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) and its precursors. In this Bulletin, we give a brief account of the history of radar entomology, with emphasis on studies of insect pests. Next, the different types of entomological radar and some associated analysis methods are outlined, together with descriptions of some ancillary measurement techniques. We then describe in some detail the contributions made by the NRI Radar Unit to current knowledge of the flight patterns of a variety of major insect pests of agriculture and of human health. These pests include: grasshoppers and locusts, the African Armyworm moth, the Rice Brown Planthopper and other rice pests, the Old World Bollworm, and some mosquito vectors of human diseases. Recent developments directed towards long-term monitoring of insect aerial faunas (for environmental impact, biodiversity and conservation purposes), and towards observations of low-altitude flight, are included. The Bulletin concludes with a short overview, in which we speculate how the technique might find application in the future

Behavioral and biochemical processing of natural and synthetic xenobiotics in the western honey bee apis mellifera

As a eusocial insect, Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, accomplishes many tasks, including acquisition of food, defense against enemies, and reproduction, through division of labor. In this dissertation, I examined whether honey bees also exploit division of labor in the detoxification of natural and synthetic xenobiotics. I approached this question from a behavioral perspective by assessing the extent to which foragers can detect and avoid natural and synthetic xenobiotics, and from a biochemical perspective, by determining how detoxification capacity changes with temporal polyethism and task allocation and by assessing whether the toxicity of xenobiotics may be enhanced or ameliorated in the presence of co-occurring compounds. From a biochemical perspective, sequencing the honey bee genome revealed that all major classes of detoxification enzymes are reduced in diversity relative to many other insect genomes, an observation that raised the possibility that honey bees may increase their biochemical versatility by adjusting detoxification activity according to age- and task-related division of labor. In this regard, while the contributions of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases to xenobiotic detoxification have been characterized to some extent, the role of carboxylesterases in detoxification of exogenous esters has not yet received attention. Using several natural esters as potential substrates, I investigated whether carboxylesterases, like some detoxifying P450s, vary in activity relative to caste differentiation and temporal polyethism. From a behavioral perspective, I conducted a semi-field experiment to determine how free-flying foragers respond to natural and synthetic xenobiotics when alternate food is available. Some natural xenobiotics found in honey and beebread, derived from nectar and pollen respectively, have been shown to upregulate genes encoding proteins associated with detoxification and immunity and may thus potentially improve honey bee health. In contrast, most synthetic organic compounds used in agriculture are associated with a diverse array of adverse physiological consequences and are regarded as significant factors contributing to population declines. Accordingly, I conducted a series of bioassays to determine if foragers display any ability to recognize and respond positively to potentially beneficial phytochemicals and/or to discriminate against harmful synthetic xenobiotics to reduce colony exposure to toxins. Because certain phytochemicals—notably, some flavonols and phenolic acids—are almost invariably present in pollen irrespective of plant source, they are ubiquitous in the diet of honey bees. Just as folivorous insect species may come to rely on phytochemicals that are regularly encountered in their host plants for ecological and physiological functions, honey bees may also depend on some of these ubiquitous dietary phytochemicals and their absence from the diet may have effects that are as yet undetermined. One such physiological function played by these phytochemicals is upregulation of detoxification enzymes; their presence or absence may thus affect the toxicity of ingested xenobiotics. In order to clarify the impacts of common dietary phytochemicals on bees, I conducted a series of longevity assays with one-day-old adult honey bees to test if natural xenobiotics (phytochemicals from nectar) enhance honey bee worker longevity and detoxification capacity. Finally, to characterize the likelihood that dietary phytochemicals may ameliorate toxicity of co-occurring pesticides during foraging under field conditions, I combined survivorship assays with flight performance assays using a flight treadmill in order to ascertain whether mortality may be reduced via phytochemical modification of energy-linked mitochondrial metabolism and energy production

USING VIRTUAL REALITY TO INVESTIGATE ‘PROTEAN’ ANTI-PREDATOR BEHAVIOUR

Prey animals have evolved a wide variety of behaviours to combat the threat of predation, many of which have received considerable empirical and theoretical attention and are generally well understood in terms of their function and mechanistic underpinning. However, one of the most commonly observed and taxonomically widespread antipredator behaviours of all has, remarkably, received almost no experimental investigation: so-called ‘protean’ behaviour. This is defined as ‘behaviour that is sufficiently unpredictable to prevent a predator anticipating in detail the future position or actions of its prey’. In this thesis, I have elucidated the mechanisms that allow protean behaviour to be an effective anti-predatory response. This was explored with two approaches. Firstly, through the novel and extremely timely use of virtual reality to allow human ‘predators’ to attack and chase virtual prey in three-dimensions from a first-person perspective, thereby bringing the realism that has been missing from previous studies on predator-prey dynamics. Secondly through the three-dimensional tracking of protean behaviour in a highly tractable model species, the painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui). I explored this phenomenon in multiple contexts. Firstly, I simulated individual protean prey and explored the effects of unpredictability in their movement rules with respect to targeting accuracy of human ‘predators’ in virtual reality. Next, I examined the concept of ‘protean insurance’ via digitised movements of the painted lady butterfly, exploring the qualities of this animals’ movement paths related to human targeting ability. I then explored how the dynamics of animal groupings affected protean movement. Specifically, I investigated how increasing movement path complexity interacted with the well-documented ‘confusion effect’. I explored this question using both an experimental study and a VR citizen science game disseminated to the general public via the video game digital distribution service ‘Steam’. Subsequently, I explored another phenomenon associated with groupings of prey items; the ‘oddity effect’, which describes the preferential targeting of phenotypically odd individuals by predators. Typically, this phenomenon is associated with oddity of colouration or size. In this case, I investigated whether oddity of protean movement patterns relative to other group members could induce a ‘behavioural oddity effect’. Finally, I used a specialised genetic algorithm (GA) that was driven by human performance with respect to targeting prey items. I investigated the emergent protean movement paths that resulted from sustained predation pressure from humans. Specifically, I examined the qualities of the most fit movement paths with respect to control evolutions that were not under the selection pressure of human performance (randomised evolution). In the course of this thesis, I have gained a deeper understanding of a near ubiquitous component of predator prey interactions that has until recently been the subject of little empirical study. These findings provide important insights into the understudied phenomenon of protean movement, which are directly applicable to predator –prey dynamics within a broad range of taxa

Biological Control of Weeds: Theory and Practical Application

Crop Production/Industries,

Earth Resources: A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 1

This bibliography lists 616 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1974 and March 1974. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory, natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, oceanography and marine resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis