DEVELOPMENT OF AN IPM PROGRAM FOR THE TROPICAL SOD WEBWORM Herpetogramma phaeopteralis Guenée By NASTARAN TOFANGSAZI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Nastaran Tofangsazi To my parents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair and co- chair, Professor Steven Arthurs and Professor Ron Cherry, for their attitude and invaluable advice throughout the course of this project from the initial planning of experiments through to preparation of manuscripts. Without their guidance and help this dissertation would not have been possible. I would like to thank you for encouraging my research and for allowing me to grow as a researcher. I am grateful to my other supervisory committee members Professor Robert Meagher and Professor Laurie Trenholm for their excellent guidance and suggestions on how to improve my work. I would like to acknowledge the Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology at University of Florida and Mid-Florida Research & Education Center (MREC) for providing financial assistance for the duration of my Ph.D. research. I am thankful to The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research and Professor Ashraf M. El- Sayed and David Maxwell Suckling for allowing me to work in their laboratories. I am grateful for the technical help of Robert Leckel, James Kerrigan. I would like to deeply appreciate Luis Aristizábal for supporting me as a lab assistant and as a friend. I appreciate the love and support that I received from my family and friends. I would like to thank all of them for making Florida a home away from home. I would like to thank my family for their long distance support. I appreciate my parents, Jamileh Mousavi and Akbar Tofangsazi and my sisters, Yasmin Tofangsazi and Ladan Tofangsazi. Their love provided my inspiration and was my driving force. I owe them everything and wish I could show them how much I love them. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 10 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 14 Importance of Turfgrasses ...................................................................................... 14 Insect Pests of Warm Season Turfgrasses ............................................................. 15 The Caterpillar Complex In Warm Season Turfgrass ............................................. 16 Web Worms ............................................................................................................ 17 Tropical Sod Webworm Taxonomy ......................................................................... 18 Tropical Sod Webworm Distribution And Life History ............................................. 18 Morphological Description ....................................................................................... 20 Hosts and Damage ................................................................................................. 21 Integrated Pest Management Of Tropical Sod Webworm ....................................... 22 Sampling .......................................................................................................... 22 Economic Threshold ......................................................................................... 22 Chemical Control .............................................................................................. 23 Microbial Control .............................................................................................. 24 Entomopathogenic Nematodes ........................................................................ 25 Cultural Control ................................................................................................ 26 Natural Enemies ............................................................................................... 27 Objectives ............................................................................................................... 28 Outline of Dissertation............................................................................................. 29 2 THERMAL REQUIREMENTS AND DEVELOPMENT OF HERPETOGRAMMA PHAEOPTERALIS (LEPIDOPTERA: CRAMBIDAE: SPILOMELINAE) .................. 42 Background ............................................................................................................. 42 Materials And Methods ........................................................................................... 44 Insect Rearing .................................................................................................. 44 Diet Suitability ................................................................................................... 44 Temperature-Dependent Development ............................................................ 45 Developmental Rate And Mathematical Models ............................................... 45 Results .................................................................................................................... 47 5 Diet Suitability ................................................................................................... 47 Temperature Dependent Development ............................................................ 48 Developmental Rate and Mathematical Models ............................................... 48 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 49 Background ............................................................................................................. 61 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 63 Insects and insecticides.................................................................................... 63 Laboratory Bioassays ....................................................................................... 63 Field Studies ..................................................................................................... 65 Results .................................................................................................................... 67 Laboratory Bioassays ....................................................................................... 67 Residual Efficacy Under Field Conditions......................................................... 67 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 68 3 EFFICACY OF COMMERCIAL FORMULATIONS OF ENTOMOPATHOGENIC NEMATODES AGAINST TROPICAL SOD WEBWORM ........................................ 78 Background ............................................................................................................. 78 Materials And Methods ........................................................................................... 80 Nematodes And Insects ................................................................................... 80 Laboratory Experiments ................................................................................... 80 Nematode Reproduction................................................................................... 81 Greenhouse Experiments ................................................................................. 81 Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 82 Results .................................................................................................................... 83 Laboratory Studies ........................................................................................... 83 Greenhouse Studies ......................................................................................... 83 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 84 4 ATTRACTION OF HERPETOGRAMMA PHAEOPTERALIS ADULTS TO FLORAL LURES AND PHERMONE CANDIDATES ............................................... 91 Background ............................................................................................................. 91 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 92 Attraction to Floral Lures .................................................................................. 92 Field Bioassays Using H. licarsisalis Pheromone Blends ................................. 93 Shipping Protocol ............................................................................................. 93 Gas Chromatography (GC) .............................................................................. 94 Electroantennogram (EAG) .............................................................................. 94