Acta Scientiarum Polonorum: Hortorum Cultus (Apr 2016)
EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SEASONAL FLIGHT ACTIVITY OF APHID MALES IN URBAN GREEN AREA
Abstract
In temperate climate zones, where a continental climate prevails, the appearance of males in populations of most aphid species takes place only in the autumn. Holocyclic and heteroecious species typically have winged males obligatorily. In holocyclic and monoecious species, males are not always winged morphs. Photoperiod is the primary factor responsible for the change in the manner of reproduction, from parthenogenetic to sexual, during the growth season, and temperature is a modifying one. The paper presents the results of many years of research on the activity of aphid male flights in characterizing species diversity, phenology of appearance and their number in urban green areas, carried out employing the Moericke’s yellow pan traps method. The research indicates a trend towards the decrease of male aphid species number over the course of the last decade, as a result of warmer weather conditions, in the years 2005–2014. The results of male catches of Rhopalosiphum padi (Linnaeus, 1761) – the most numerously represented species – prove that there is a relationship between their number in autumn and the number of days for which the average temperature exceeds 20ºC and rainfall occurs during the first decade of August. The very early appearance of Brachycaudus divaricatae Shaposhnikov, 1956 males in the season was an interesting phenomenon which is untypical for aphids in Poland.
