Browsing by Author "Crossley, Michael S."
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Item Biology and Management of Lesser Mealworm Alphitobius diaperinus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in Broiler Houses(Journal of Integrated Pest Management, 2023-01-30) Sammarco, Ben C.; Hinkle, Nancy C.; Crossley, Michael S.Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), the lesser mealworm, is a ubiquitous generalist pest of poultry broiler and layer facilities, originating in southern Africa and now found worldwide. They spend their full life cycle within the litter and manure of poultry, causing structural damage to poultry houses, injuring birds, and acting as a reservoir for several avian pathogens, notably Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli. Management commonly consists of spraying walls and floors of poultry houses with organophosphates, pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, or spinosyns between flocks, and periodic removal and replacement of litter. Populations have been observed to become resistant to specific insecticides after ca. 10 yr of consistent use and exhibit cross resistance to insecticides of the same mode of action. Alternative cultural and biological control methods have been identified but are not currently implemented. More research is needed regarding the economic impact of A. diaperinus, the mechanisms of its insecticide resistance, and patterns and mechanisms of colonization for effective integrated pest management programs to be devised and implemented.Item Biology and Management of Peanut Burrower Bug (Hemiptera: Cydnidae) in Southeast U.S. Peanut(Journal of Integrated Pest Management, 2021-08-06) Aigner, Benjamin L.; Crossley, Michael S.; Abney, Mark R.Peanut burrower bug, Pangaeus bilineatus (Say), is a piercing-sucking pest of peanut, Arachis hypogaea (L.), that is native to Central and North America. The insect spends most of its life below the soil surface and is not easily detected in the field. Although injury to peanut is sporadic in the Southern USA, the bug has become a serious economic pest for farmers in the region in recent years. During and after peanut seed formation, adult and immature bugs feed directly on seeds through the hull, reducing the quality and value of the crop. The value of peanut is reduced by approximately $209/MT when feeding injury is present on ≥3.5% of kernels by weight. Deep tillage prior to planting and application of granular chlorpyrifos during the growing season are the only tactics currently available for managing P. bilineatus in peanut in the United States. Relatively little research attention has been focused on P. bilineatus, and improved knowledge of the insect’s biology and ecology is needed to develop an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy that significantly reduces financial losses caused by this insect. The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the taxonomic history, biology, pest status, and management of P. bilineatus primarily as it relates to peanut production systems in the Southeast USA.Item Genome Resequencing Reveals Rapid, Repeated Evolution in the Colorado Potato Beetle(Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2022-01-19) Pélissié, Benjamin; Chen, Yolanda H.; Cohen, Zachary P.; Crossley, Michael S.; Hawthorne, David J.; Izzo, Victor; Schoville, Sean D.Insecticide resistance and rapid pest evolution threatens food security and the development of sustainable agricultural practices, yet the evolutionary mechanisms that allow pests to rapidly adapt to control tactics remains unclear. Here, we examine how a global super-pest, the Colorado potato beetle (CPB), Leptinotarsa decemlineata, rapidly evolves resistance to insecticides. Using whole-genome resequencing and transcriptomic data focused on its ancestral and pest range in North America, we assess evidence for three, nonmutually exclusive models of rapid evolution: pervasive selection on novel mutations, rapid regulatory evolution, and repeated selection on standing genetic variation. Population genomic analysis demonstrates that CPB is geographically structured, even among recently established pest populations. Pest populations exhibit similar levels of nucleotide diversity, relative to nonpest populations, and show evidence of recent expansion. Genome scans provide clear signatures of repeated adaptation across CPB populations, with especially strong evidence of selection on insecticide resistance genes in different populations. Analyses of gene expression show that constitutive upregulation of candidate insecticide resistance genes drives distinctive population patterns. CPB evolves insecticide resistance repeatedly across agricultural regions, leveraging similar genetic pathways but different genes, demonstrating a polygenic trait architecture for insecticide resistance that can evolve from standing genetic variation. Despite expectations, we do not find support for strong selection on novel mutations, or rapid evolution from selection on regulatory genes. These results suggest that integrated pest management practices must mitigate the evolution of polygenic resistance phenotypes among local pest populations, in order to maintain the efficacy and sustainability of novel control techniques.Item Moths are less attracted to light traps than they used to be(Journal of Insect Conservation, 2024-04-19) Battles, Ian; Burkness, Eric; Crossley, Michael S.; Edwards, Collin B.; Holmstrom, Kristian; Hutchison, William; Ingerson-Mahar, Joseph; Owens, David; Owens, Avalon C.S.As evidence of global insect declines continues to mount, insect conservationists are becoming increasingly interested in modeling the demographic history of at-risk species from long-term survey data. However, certain entomological survey methods may be susceptible to temporal biases that will complicate these efforts. Entomological light traps, in particular, may catch fewer insects today than they once did due solely to increases in anthropogenic light pollution. Here we investigate this possibility by comparing the demographic histories of corn earworm moths (Helicoverpa zea) estimated from pairs of blacklight and pheromone traps monitored at the same farms. We find a stark decline in blacklight trap efficacy over 25 years of monitoring in Delaware, USA, mirrored over 10 years of monitoring in New Jersey, USA. While the precise causes of this decline remain a subject for discussion, the practical consequences are clear: insect conservationists cannot fully rely on long-term trends from entomological light traps.Item Opposing global change drivers counterbalance trends in breeding North American monarch butterflies(Global Change Biology, 2022-06-10) Crossley, Michael S.; Meehan, Timothy D.; Moran, Matthew D.; Glassberg, Jeffrey; Snyder, William E.; Davis, Andrew K.Many insects are in clear decline, with monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) drawing particular attention as a flagship species. It is well documented that, among migratory populations, numbers of overwintering monarchs have been falling across several decades, but trends among breeding monarchs are less clear. Here, we compile >135,000 monarch observations between 1993 and 2018 from the North American Butterfly Association's annual butterfly count to examine spatiotemporal patterns and potential drivers of adult monarch relative abundance trends across the entire breeding range in eastern and western North America. While the data revealed declines at some sites, particularly the US Northeast and parts of the Midwest, numbers in other areas, notably the US Southeast and Northwest, were unchanged or increasing, yielding a slightly positive overall trend across the species range. Negative impacts of agricultural glyphosate use appeared to be counterbalanced by positive effects of annual temperature, particularly in the US Midwest. Overall, our results suggest that population growth in summer is compensating for losses during the winter and that changing environmental variables have offsetting effects on mortality and/or reproduction. We suggest that density-dependent reproductive compensation when lower numbers arrive each spring is currently able to maintain relatively stable breeding monarch numbers. However, we caution against complacency since accelerating climate change may bring growing threats. In addition, increases of summer monarchs in some regions, especially in California and in the south, may reflect replacement of migratory with resident populations. Nonetheless, it is perhaps reassuring that ubiquitous downward trends in summer monarch abundance are not evident.Item Past and recent farming degrades aquatic insect genetic diversity(Molecular Ecology, 2022-06-30) Crossley, Michael S.; Latimer, Christopher E.; Kennedy, Christina M.; Snyder, William E.Recent declines in once-common species are triggering concern that an environmental crisis point has been reached. Yet, the lack of long abundance time series data for most species can make it difficult to attribute these changes to anthropogenic causes, and to separate them from normal cycles. Genetic diversity, on the other hand, is sensitive to past and recent environmental changes, and reflects a measure of a populations' potential to adapt to future stressors. Here, we consider whether patterns of genetic diversity among aquatic insects can be linked to historical and recent patterns of land use change. We collated mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) variation for >700 aquatic insect species across the United States, where patterns of agricultural expansion and intensification have been documented since the 1800s. We found that genetic diversity was lowest in regions where cropland was historically (pre-1950) most extensive, suggesting a legacy of past environmental harm. Genetic diversity further declined where cropland has since expanded, even after accounting for climate and sampling effects. Notably though, genetic diversity also appeared to rebound where cropland has diminished. Our study suggests that genetic diversity at the community level can be a powerful tool to infer potential population declines and rebounds over longer time spans than is typically possible with ecological data. For the aquatic insects that we considered, patterns of land use many decades ago appear to have left long-lasting damage to genetic diversity that could threaten evolutionary responses to rapid global change.