PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds

PLANT PROTECTION 1 – Pests, Diseases and Weeds
NO. SPECIES
IN AUSTRALIA
SOME
DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES
LIFE CYCLE
Steelblue
sawfly
(spitfires)
ORDER HYMENOPTERA
Ants, bees, sawflies, wasps
More than 4,000 species of ants in Australia. World-wide decline in bees and
other pollinators, eg beetles, butterflies, flies, bats and birds, is threatening
yields of major field crops and biodiversity of wild plants. 25% of Britain’s
250 native bee species are classified as rare or threatened.
www.ento.csiro.au/education/insects/hymenoptera.html
What wasp is that - An interactive identification guide to the Australasian families of
Hymenoptera www.cbit.uq.edu.au/software/whatwasp/
Pesticides – A Guide to their effects on honey bees (Rhodes 2006) (available online).
The toxicity of commonly used chemicals to beneficial species www.goodbugs.org.au/
1. Has the largest group of beneficial insects, eg predators, parasites and
pollinators, of any insect order.
2. Some show highly socialized behaviour, eg ants, bees.
3. Resistance to pesticides has only occasionally occurred.
ADULT Body 1. A marked constriction between the 1 st and 2 nd segments
of the abdomen to form a ‘waist’. Exceptions are
sawflies and wood wasps.
2. No scales on body, if hairs then wings are clear.
3. Females often have a long ovipositor for sawing,
piercing or stinging.
Wings
1. Usually 2 pairs membraneous (lace-like) wings. A few
species, eg ants, have largely dispensed with wings
except for some brief prenuptial flights.
2. Forewings larger than forewings and are held together
by hooks (hamuli).
3. Wings held flat over body when at rest.
LARVA Legs Some have legs and others are legless, eg
1. Caterpillar-like thoracic legs and 6-8 pairs prolegs, eg
cypress pine sawfly larvae.
2. Thoracic legs only, eg steelblue sawfly larvae (spitfires).
3. Maggot-like (legless), eg parasitic wasp larva.
Mouth
Chewing mouthparts.
There is a complete metamorphosis - egg, larva (grub, ‘slug’, spitfire)
pupa and adult.
Adults are about
25 mm long
Life cycle
may vary
markedly,
eg ants,
bees,
wasps
METHOD OF
FEEDING
ADULT Chewing, but mouthparts are sometimes modified for chewing
and lapping.
LARVA Chewing.
114 Insects and allied pests - Hymenoptera (ants, bees, sawflies, wasps)