Long-term study of flight activity and abundance of wheat colonizing aphid species

Flight activity and species composition of alata aphids was monitored by yellow water pan traps for 20 years (1982–2001). Yellow water pan traps were placed into wheat fields; the species composition of wheat colonizing aphids was also studied in Mosonmagyaróvár. The results of the study are relevant to the region of Kisalföld. Yellow water pan traps collected 30 aphid species. The proportions of the cereal aphids in the yellow pan traps varied between years. Their proportions were the followings: Diuraphis noxia Kurdj.: 0.0–2.3 %, Metopolophium dirhodum Walk.: 0.9–35.4 %, Rhopalosiphum padi L. 2.4–48.9 %, Shizaphis graminum Rond.: 0.2–11.9 %, Sitobion avenae Fabr.: 0.5–32.4 %. The proportions of cereal aphids feeding on winter wheat varied between 0.0–3.0, 1.0–85.0, 1.0–89.0, 0.0–5.0, 1.0–97.0 %, respectively, during the period of the study. R. padi proved to be the most dominant species during the study (57%), followed by S. avenae (24%), M. dirhodum (17%) S. graminum and D. noxia (1–1%).Linear regression analyses revealed a significant relationship between the relative number of species caught and those living on the plants (R 2 =0.825) providing a reliable forecast. There was a strong relationship between the effective heat sum, calculated from the temperature between 1 st April and 31 st July, and the number of aphids caught by yellow pan traps and the number of aphids feeding on plants, R 2 =0.932 and R 2 =0.9612, respectively