Augmentation of beneficial arthropods by strip-management. 3. Artificial introduction of a spider species which preys on wheat pest insects

Spiders of soybean crops in Santa Fe province, Argentina: influence of surrounding spontaneous vegetation on lot colonization

Trials during two consecutive soybean cycles were performed in central Santa Fe in order to determine the main spider families present in the crop and to determine the influence of spontaneous margin flora on colonization towards the lot. Samplings were done by sweeping net and pitfall traps. It was concluded that:1. Oxyopidae was the most frequent family in the herbaceous layer of both the margins and the soybean crop, and Lycosidae in the lower layer; 2. Margin strips in a soybean lot contribute to the colonization of the crop by spiders of aerial habits and also promote re-colonization following pesticide applications, since they act as shelters. The influence on spiders of terrestrial habits was somewhat lower; 3. The distribution of the populations of spiders of terrestrial habits was homogeneous in a soybean crop seeded directly and these predators had a greater capacity to control pests at all points of the lot.

Ballooning dispersal using silk: world fauna, phylogenies, genetics and models

Aerial dispersal using silk ('ballooning') has evolved in spiders (Araneae), spider mites (Acari) and in the larvae of moths (Lepidoptera). Since the 17th century, over 500 observations of ballooning behaviours have been published, yet there is an absence of any evolutionary synthesis of these data. In this paper the literature is reviewed, extensively documenting the known world fauna that balloon and the principal behaviours involved. This knowledge is then incorporated into the current evolutionary phylogenies to examine how ballooning might have arisen. Whilst it is possible that ballooning co-evolved with silk and emerged as early as the Devonian (410-355 mya), it is arguably more likely that ballooning evolved in parallel with deciduous trees, herbaceous annuals and grasses in the Cretaceous (135-65 mya). During this period, temporal (e.g. bud burst, chlorophyll thresholds) and spatial (e.g. herbivory, trampling) heterogeneities in habitat structuring predominated and intensified into the Cenozoic (65 mya to the present). It is hypothesized that from the ancestral launch mechanism known as 'suspended ballooning', widely used by individuals in plant canopies, 'tip-toe' and 'rearing' take-off behaviours were strongly selected for as habitats changed. It is contended that ballooning behaviour in all three orders can be described as a mixed Evolutionary Stable Strategy. This comprises individual bet-hedging due to habitat unpredictability, giving an underlying randomness to individual ballooning, with adjustments to the individual ballooning probability being conferred by more predictable habitat changes or colonization strategies. Finally, current methods used to study ballooning, including modelling and genetic research, are illustrated and an indication of future prospects given.