REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY OF Pheropsophus aequinoctialis L.: FECUNDITY, FERTILITY, AND OVIPOSITION BEHAVIOR; AND INFLUENCE OF MOLE CRICKET EGG CHAMBER DEPTH ON LARVAL SURVIVAL By AARON SCOTT WEED A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2003 Copyright 2003 by Aaron Scott Weed This thesis is dedicated to my family and my closest friends who have inspired me, given me confidence, and had faith in me throughout this experience. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my committee members (Drs. Howard Frank, James Nation, and Heather McAuslane) for their instructional criticisms concerning this thesis. Secondly, I would like to thank all of my fellow graduate students for their scientific input and friendship; and for sharing this educational experience with me. Many thanks go to Robert Hemenway, who provided me with all of the necessary tools and insects to make this thesis possible. I would sincerely like to thank Marinela Capanu of IFAS Statistics for her help with all of the statistical analyses. Big thanks go to Alejandro Arevalo, for the use of his camera; and to him and Craig Welch, for their companionship in Dr. Frank’s laboratory. Finally, I would like to thank Debbie Hall for all of her guidance throughout this degree process. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................. iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................viii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….x CHAPTER 1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE........................................................................................ 1 Mole Cricket Diversity in the Southeastern United States .......................................... 1 Mole Cricket Biology................................................................................................... 1 Mole Cricket Damage .................................................................................................. 3 Control of Pest Mole Crickets...................................................................................... 4 Chemical Control of Mole Crickets...................................................................... 5 Cultural Control to Prevent Mole Cricket Damage .............................................. 7 Biological Control of Mole Crickets in Florida.................................................... 7 Carabid Beetle Ecology ............................................................................................. 11 Tribe Peleciini……............................................................................................. 13 Tribe Lebiini………. .......................................................................................... 14 Tribe Brachinini…….......................................................................................... 15 Objectives……........................................................................................................... 17 2 FECUNDITY AND FERTILITY OF LABORATORY-REARED Pheropsophus aequinoctialis............................................................................................................. 19 Introduction…............................................................................................................ 19 Materials and Methods............................................................................................... 20 Experimental Colony .......................................................................................... 20 Egg Collection and Fertility Determination........................................................ 20 Results………............................................................................................................ 21 Discussion…… .......................................................................................................... 22 v 3 OVIPOSITION BEHAVIOR OF Pheropsophus aequinoctialis L. IN RESPONSE TO SAND WITH Scapteriscus abbreviatus SCUDDER TUNNELS, ARTIFICIALLY CREATED TUNNELS, AND TO SAND WITHOUT TUNNELS: DIRECTED OR RANDOM? ................................................................ 28 Introduction…............................................................................................................ 28 Materials and Methods............................................................................................... 29 General Plexiglas Sandwich ............................................................................... 29 Mole Cricket Tunnel (MCT) versus No Tunnel (NT) ........................................ 30 Mole Cricket Tunnel (MCT) versus Artificial Tunnel (AT) .............................. 30 Artificial Tunnel (AT) versus No Tunnel (NT).................................................. 31 Oviposition………….......................................................................................... 32 Sampling Sandwiches with Treatments.............................................................. 32 Egg Extraction……… ........................................................................................ 32 Results………............................................................................................................ 34 MCT versus NT……. ......................................................................................... 34 MCT versus AT…… .......................................................................................... 35 AT versus NT……….......................................................................................... 35 Discussion…… .......................................................................................................... 36 4 INFLUENCE OF Scapteriscus abbreviatus EGG CLUTCH DEPTH ON THE LARVAL SURVIVAL OF Pheropsophus aequinoctialis......................................... 44 Introduction…............................................................................................................ 44 Materials and Methods............................................................................................... 45 Scapteriscus abbreviatus Egg Chamber ............................................................. 45 Placing Egg Chambers over a Range of Depths ................................................. 46 Results………............................................................................................................ 47 Discussion……. ......................................................................................................... 47 5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH......................................................... 51 APPENDIX ADDITIONAL CHAPTER 2 FIGURES .................................................. 54 LIST OF REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 59 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH............................................................................................. 64 vi LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 Emergence dates (2002) of the female and 2 males placed in each of the 10 cups from which eggs were collected...................................................................... 25 3-1 Results of the contrasts procedure between depth intervals for both treatments ..... 38 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 Mean number of eggs laid per week with 95% confidence intervals for each female ...................................................................................................................... 26 2-2 Fecundity versus the proportion of fertile eggs laid for each female over the 20-week period ........................................................................................................ 26 2-3 Mean number of eggs laid per week with 95% confidence intervals for all females..................................................................................................................... 27 3-1 Plexiglas sandwich with black construction paper in place..................................... 39 3-2 No tunnel (NT) and Mole cricket tunnel (MCT) treatments with Plexiglas barrier in place ......................................................................................................... 39 3-3 Placement of the artificial tunnel (AT) treatment in all oviposition arenas............. 39 3-4 General MCT versus AT arena before the beetle was released for oviposition ...... 40 3-5 Oviposition arena and sand intervals within each treatment ................................... 40 3-6 Total number of eggs laid in each depth interval of the MCT and NT treatments................................................................................................................. 41 3-7 Plot of the transformed least squares means estimates for each depth interval of the MCT and NT treatments. Different letters indicate significant differences between depth intervals of the same treatment at the α= 0.05 level..... 41 3-8 Total number of eggs laid in each depth interval of the MCT and AT treatments................................................................................................................. 42 3-9 Plot of the transformed least squares means estimates for each depth interval of the MCT and AT treatments. Different letters indicate significant differences between