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Relationships between aphids and ladybeetles on alfalfa stands in northeastern Spain
* , ,
1  Universitat de Lleida, Department of Crop & Forest Sciences
2  Agrotecnio-Cerca Center
Academic Editor: Junwei (Jerry) Zhu

Abstract:

Aphids are one of the main pests of alfalfa in Spain. The relationship between aphids and ladybeetles has been determined. Alfalfa was sampled by sweep-netting along its productive period in several commercial stands each year between 2010-2020. Acyrthosiphum pisum and Therioaphis trifolii were the most abundant aphid species, peaking in the 2nd and 4th intercut, respectively. Coccinella septempunctata and Hippodamia variegata were by far the coccinelid prevalent species. There were positive correlations between the abundance of C. septempunctata and A. pisum at the 2nd intercut; H. variegata and T. trifolii at the 4th intercut; and H. variegata and the total number of aphids in the 5th intercut.

Keywords: Acyrthosiphum pisum; Therioaphis trifolii; Aphis craccivora; Coccinella septempunctata; Hip-podamia variegata; population dynamics; numerical responses
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