High-altitude migration of Psylloidea (Hemiptera) over England

Some species of psyllid (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) are known to make high-altitude windborne migrations, but compared with their sister superfamily, the Aphidoidea, our knowledge of these movements is rudimentary and unsystematised. Here we have extracted psyllid capture data from day and night aerial sampling carried out at a height of 200 m above ground at Cardington, Bedfordshire, UK, during summers between 1999 and 2007. These records were consolidated with high-altitude psyllid catches made over England during the 1930s and with some other trapping results from northwest Europe which were indicative of migration. Information on aerial densities, diel flight periodicity, and the sex-ratio of the aerial psyllid populations is presented. We also compared our results with those of a recent study which used the Rothamsted Insect Survey network of suction traps (sampling at a height of 12.2 m); this provided confirmative evidence that the suction-traps were indeed detecting migrating psyllids. Finally, both aerial netting and suction trap data were used to tentatively interpret the seasonal timing of migrations in terms of the breeding/overwintering cycles of some common psyllid species.

Registration of the flight dynamics of economically important aphid species using the Johnson’s suction trap and its importance in the integrated protection of agricultural crops

The main aim of the study was to become acquainted with the daily and seasonal dynamics of flights of ten economically important aphid species in Johnson’s suction trap in Winna Góra in 2018–2020. In the 2018 a total of 3.584 winged aphid specimens were caught, in 2019 – 5.049, and in 2020 – 9.411. Five aphid species were noticed as the most numerous: Rhopalosiphum padi, Sitobion avenae, Aphis fabae, Myzus persicae and Anoecia corni. Members of bird cherry-oat aphid (R. padi) dominated in all the years of observation. The number of caught aphids depended on the weather conditions in individual decades. Harvest data, in conjunction with the course of temperatures and rainfall in individual years, may constitute the basis for establishing short- and long-term forecasts of the emergence of economically important aphid species.