Movement of Heliothis virescens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Mississippi in the Spring: Implications for Area-Wide Management

Abstract

About 250,000 internally marked, sterile male and sterile-male-producing female Heliothis virescens (F.) were released over a 238-km ² area in the Delta of western Mississippiin spring 1982 and 1983. Recaptures of males in 120 pheromone traps over an area of 1,500 km ² indicated that approximately 30% of the population could be accounted for within that area but that density of released males at distances greater than about 7.5 km from the edge of the release area was low relative to that at the center. Recovery of progeny of released females indicated that female movement is at least as great as that of males. In addition, males moved an average of 0.6 km upwind over a lifetime of about 9 d. The density of native males is patchy over a spatial scale of 10 km, and the location of patches is variable from year to year. These results lead to recommendations that experimental units for testing area-wide management tactics for H. virescens in areas similar to the Mississippi Delta should be at least 15 km in diameter, separated from one another by at least 50 km, and replicated.