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Effect of agroecosystem diversity on natural enemies of maize stemborers in coastal Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2007

C.A.O. Midega ,
C.K.P.O. Ogol  and
W.A. Overholt
C.A.O. Midega*
Affiliation:
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), PO Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya Department of Zoology, Kenyatta University, PO Box 43844, Nairobi, Kenya
C.K.P.O. Ogol
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology, Kenyatta University, PO Box 43844, Nairobi, Kenya
W.A. Overholt
Affiliation:
Indian River Research and Education Centre, University of Florida, 2199 South Rock Road, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA
*
*Email: cmidega@yahoo.com
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Abstract

A study was conducted at Mtwapa in the northern coastal area of Kenya during the long and short rainy seasons of 1999 and 2000 to assess the benefits of agroecosystem diversification—through agroforestry and intercropping—on the activity of natural enemies of maize stemborers. Treatments consisted of maize and cowpea intercrops or maize monocrops planted within hedgerows of Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium. The plots were mulched or unmulched and insecticide-treated or not. The maize stemborers encountered, in order of abundance, were Chilo partellus, Chilo orichalcociliellus and Sesamia calamistis. The egg parasitoids Trichogramma spp. and Telenomus spp. were recovered from stemborer eggs. Ants, ladybird beetles, earwigs and crab spiders were found predating on the eggs. The larval parasitoids recovered included Cotesia sesamiae, Cotesia flavipes and Goniozus indicus, and the pupal parasitoid was Pediobius furvus. Mean rates of stemborer egg parasitism were generally high (>70%) while larval and pupal parasitism rates were low (<10%) for all the treatments. The observed rates of parasitism did not support the natural enemies hypothesis, which predicts that natural enemy activity increases with increasing agroecosystem diversity. Predation, larval and pupal mortality rates were generally low in all the treatments (<10%), with no significant differences between treatments.

Keywords

maize stemborersnatural enemiesparasitoidspredatorsnatural enemies hypothesisagroecosystem diversityKenya
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , December 2004 , pp. 280 - 286
Copyright
Copyright © ICIPE 2004

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