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Annual cycle of the legume pod borer Maruca vitrata Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in southwestern Burkina Faso

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Abstract

Maruca vitrata is an economically significant insect pest of cowpea in sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the seasonal population patterns of M. vitrata is essential for the establishment of effective pest management strategies. M. vitrata larval populations on cultivated cowpea and adult flying activities were monitored in addition to scouting for host plants and parasitoids during 2 consecutive years in 2010 and 2011 in southwestern Burkina Faso. Our data suggest that M. vitrata populations overlapped on cultivated cowpea and alternate host plants during the rainy season. During the cowpea off-season, M. vitrata maintained a permanent population on the wild host plants Mucuna poggei and Daniella oliveri. The parasitoid fauna include three species, Phanerotoma leucobasis Kri., Braunsia kriegeri End. and Bracon sp. Implications of these finding for pest management strategies are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Feed the Future Legume Innovation Lab (formerly known as the Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Program) by the Bureau for Food Security, US Agency for International Development under the terms of grant no. EDH-A-00-07-00005-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US Agency for International Development or the US government. The authors are also grateful to Drs. Manu Tamo and Georg Goergen from IITA for identifying the parasitoid species. We are also thankful to our technician Herve Bama for helping collect the field data.

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Correspondence to Niango Malick Ba.

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Communicated by Handling Editor: Michael Smith.

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Traore, F., Ba, N.M., Dabire-Binso, C.L. et al. Annual cycle of the legume pod borer Maruca vitrata Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in southwestern Burkina Faso. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 8, 155–162 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-014-9297-0

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