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Preliminary Note on a Method for the Direct Estimation of Populations of Pseudotheraptus wayi Brown on Coconut Palms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

D. Yeo  and
R. Foster
D. Yeo
Affiliation:
Colonial Pesticides Research Unit, Arusha, Tanganyika.
R. Foster
Affiliation:
Colonial Pesticides Research Unit, Arusha, Tanganyika.
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Extract

A technique is described for counting the numbers of Pseudotheraptus wayi Brown on coconut palms, on which this Coreid is a serious pest in East Africa, Zanzibar and the neighbouring islands. The crown of each palm is systematically searched by an African assistant, the insects collected being classified by instars and then replaced. The adults can fly and very few are seen or captured.

Palms were examined by a team of searchers in five areas in a well-maintained plantation on Mafia Island, 3–4 separate samples, each of 61–138 palms, being taken in each area between mid-January and mid-February 1956. In all, 13 searchers participated, but not all were used on the same day; when they had become experienced their daily catches were of comparable size.

The total nymphal populations, and the proportions of them in the various stages, are sufficiently consistent to suggest that the searching technique may give reproducible results, and thus be of considerable value as a means of assessing the results of control measures.

The average catch was about one nymph for each palm that was searched, and recaptures from known numbers of bugs liberated indicated that about one quarter of the population present was being found. The nymphal population is not distributed at random among the palms.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 1958 , pp. 585 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1958

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References

Brown, E. S. (1955). Pseudotheraptus wayi, a new genus and species of Coreid (Hemiptera) injurious to coconuts in East Africa.—Bull. ent. Res., 46, pp. 221–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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