Selection of Aphid Species by Different Kinds of Insect Traps

Abstract

MOEREKE yellow trays are a simple and cheap method of trapping aphids, and are being widely used for the study of aphid flight and behaviour. These traps, however, have never been standardized with respect to their differential catch of various species. Three yellow trays and a suction trap were operated close to each other, over a small plot of pyrethrum not infested with aphids, for more than two years at the East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organization, near Kikuyu, Kenya. There are reasons for thinking that the suction trap takes a fairly accurate sample of aphid density. The ratio of yellow-tray to suction-trap catch for the commoner species is shown in Table 1. The total number of specimens, from both traps, is placed in parentheses. All the specimens listed were alate viviparous females except for the male Rhopalosiphum maidis.