Study of Nocturnal and Diurnal Activities of Lacewings

Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 34 (1–2), pp. 149–152 (1999)

Study of Nocturnal and Diurnal Activities of Lacewings (Neuropteroidea: Raphidioptera, Neuroptera) by Suction Trap J. VAS1, L. ÁBRAHÁM2 and V. MARKÓ1 1

Department of Entomology, University of Horticulture and Food Industry, H-1502 Budapest, P.O. Box. 53, Hungary 2 Somogy County Museum, Kaposvár, Hungary

The nocturnal and diurnal activities of lacewings were studied in 1991 by a suction trap emptied in the twilight hours of dawn and dusk. In course of the investigations 475 individuals belonging to 22 species were collected. Seven species (Semidalis aleyrodiformis, Hemerobius humulinus, Hemerobius lutescens, Chrysopa formosa, Chr. pallens, Chrysoperla carnea, Dichochrysa prasina) showed nocturnal activity. The activity of Coniopteryx arcuata, C. esbenpeterseni and C. renate fell partly to the day time. Key words: Lacewings, suction traps, Neuropteroidea.

The automatic devices for sampling insects are chosen mainly by considering the diurnal or nocturnal ways of life of the animals to be collected. For the activity periods of neuropteroids only a few experiments have been carried out, these were made mostly under field conditions by light traps (Williams and Killington, 1935; New, 1967; New and Haddow, 1973; Honek and Kraus, 1981) or sticky boards (Duelli, 1980). The use of light traps is limited practically to the dark phase of the day, so the movement activity of species with diurnal activity cannot be measured with these sampling tools; besides, as the functioning of these tools is based on disturbing the natural behaviour of insects, they do not work in twilight hours with constant reliability. Therefore, to surmount these defects and restrains continually working suction traps were installed that did not exert any attractive forces on the insects, so these could be declared as objective sampling devices. The Chrysopidae and Hemerobiidae studied by Banks (1952) had all nocturnal activities; no species with diurnal activity was found among them. The most comprehensive study of lacewing’s flight activity was made by Duelli (1986) under laboratory conditions, where the species of Chrysopidae family were involved. Based on his results he ranged the species into four activity types, but besides these Chrysopidae the activity types of other Neuropteroidea remained further on unknown. In our suction trap studies we wanted to find out under field conditions, in which part of the day are some Neuroptera common in Hungary active.

Materials and Methods Our investigations have been carried out in 1991 within the limits of Budapest in Nagykovácsi (Julianna-major), in an experimental orchard of the Plant Protection Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The orchard, bordered by forests (type: Querceto-petreae0238–1249/99/$ 5.00 © 1999, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest

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cerris and Ceraso-Quercetum pubescentis) and ruderals lies in a height of 470 m above sea level, in Buda hills. The 2 hectares orchard, containing various fruits and different varieties, was planted in 1967 received since that time no plant protection treatments. On the edge of the orchard, near to peach trees a Meszleny-Szalai-Marzsó type cylindrical suction trap was placed. Its motor was operated by 220 V current, had a capacity of 55 W with a performance of 1000 m3 air/hour. The aspirator of 48 cm diameter operated at a height of 1.6 m and the device worked continually from midMarch until mid-November 1991. The trap was emptied twice daily, in the hours of dawn and dusk (twilight). This double operation enabled us to range into three categories the animals caught: the ones purely nocturnal, the ones of solely diurnal way of life and the ones of mixed activity i.e. whose continued into clear daylight or from twilight into total night. Because of low individual numbers only the more common species could be differentiated into clearly daily (diurnal), nocturnal and mixed types, while in the others – because of low numbers – only tendencies could be mentioned. Dominance has been determined on the basis of total catch.

Results and Discussion From the site of collection 475 individuals of 22 species were caught in the trap in total; from Raphidiidae only 2 individuals of a single species, from Coniopterygidae 137 individuals of 7 species, from Hemerobiidae 54 individuals of 4 species and from Chrysopidae 282 individuals of 10 species (Table 1). 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20%

D. pra.

C. car.

C. per.

C. pal.

C. for.

H. lut.

H. hum.

S. ale.

C. ren.

C. esb.

0%

C. arc.

10%

Fig. 1. The proportional distribution of the night/day activities in case of the most common Neuroptera species (Nagykovácsi, mixed orchard, suction trap, 1991) C. arc. – Coniopteryx arcuata, C. esb. – Coniopteryx esbenpeterseni, C. ren. – Coniopteryx renate, S. ale. – Semidalis aleyrodiformis, H. hum. – Hemerobius humulinus, H. lut. – Hemerobius lutescens, C. for. – Chrysopa formosa, C. pal. – Chrysopa pallens, C. per. – Chrysopa perla, C. car. – Chrysoperla carnea, D. pra. – Dichochrysa prasina Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 34, 1999

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Table 1 Neuroptera species and individuals collected by suction trap at day time and at night (Nagykovácsi, mixed orchard, 1991)

Raphidiidae Dichrostigma flavipes Coniopterygidae Coniopteryx arcuata Coniopteryx borealis Coniopteryx esbenpeterseni Coniopteryx renate Coniopteryx tineiformis Helicoconis pseudolutea Semidalis aleyrodiformis Hemerobiidae Hemerobius humulinus Hemerobius lutescens Sympherobius pygmaeus Wesmaelius subnebulosus Chrysopidae Chrysopa phyllochroma Chrysopa formosa Chrysopa pallens Chrysopa perla Chrysoperla carnea Chrysotropia ciliata Dichochrysa flavifrons Dichochrysa prasina Nineta flava Nothochrysa fulviceps Altogether

Diurnal

Nocturnal

Altogether

0

2

2

6 1 7 3 1 0 1

40 3 47 4 3 4 17

46 4 54 7 4 4 18

0 1 0 0

17 34 1 1

17 35 1 1

0 0 2 0 9 0 0 1 0 0 32

1 15 28 6 178 2 2 36 1 1 443

1 15 30 6 187 2 2 37 1 1 475

Dominant was (D: 39%) the Chrysoperla carnea complex, with the species Coniopteryx esbenpeterseni (D: 11%) and Coniopteryx arcuata (D: 9%) as subdominants. In course of samplings during the hours of daylight 32 individuals of 10 species, during the darkness 443 individuals of 22 species were collected. The distributions of species between darkness and daylight are shown in Table 1 and Fig. 1. It is obvious that most species found are active in the hours of darkness: Semidalis aleyrodiformis, Hemerobius humulinus, Hemerobius lutescens, Chrysopa formosa, Chr. pallens, Chrysoperla carnea, Dichochrysa prasina. Species with activity solely during the daylight was not found. Species with nocturnal and partly diurnal activity are Coniopteryx arcuata, Coniopteryx esbenpeterseni and presumably Coniopteryx renate. The species Coniopteryx borealis and Coniopteryx tineiformis belong in all probability into this type of “double” activity. Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 34, 1999

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Our observations and results complete the earlier observations of Banks (1952) and Duelli (1986) and complete the data of our own laboratory studies (Ábrahám et al., 1998). Concerning their activity period the Neuroptera studied so far have exhibited a definitive nocturnal activity. So a nocturnal activity was evidence for Chrysoperla carnea by Banks (1952), Duelli (1980), Honek and Kraus (1981), for Hemerobius humulinus (Banks 1952), for Chrysopa phyllochroma, Chr. formosa, Dichochrysa prasina, Dichochrysa flavifrons and Nineta flava (Duelli, 1986). With these species we have received similar results and confirmed the above ones.

Acknowledgements The authors have to express their thanks to F. Szentkirályi for the idea of present study, to Z. Mészáros and A. Haltrich for assuring the backgrounds of investigations and to L. Zách for running the trap mechanism. Authors are furthermore indebted to L. Szalay-Marzsó for critical review of the manuscript of present article. The work was funded by grant (No. 23885) from the Hungarian Research Fund (OTKA).

Literature Ábrahám, L., Vas, J., Mészáros, Z. (1998): Hazai Neuroptera populációk éjszakai és nappali aktivitás típusai (Types of night and daily activities of Neuroptera populations occurring in Hungary). Növényvédelmi Tud. Napok p. 41. Banks, C. J. (1952): An analysis of captures of Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae in suction traps at Rothamsted July 1949. Proc. R. Ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 27, 45–57. Duelli, P. (1980): Adaptive dispersal and appetitive flight in the green lacewing Chrysopa carnea. Ecol. Ent. 5, 213–220. Duelli, P. (1986): Fligh activity patterns in green lacewings (Planipennia: Chrysopidae). In: Gepp, J., Aspöck, H. and Hölzel, H.: (eds): Recent Research in Neuropterology 1986 Graz, pp. 165–170. Honek, A. and Kraus, P. (1981): Factors affecting light trap catches of Chrysoperla carnea (Neuroptera, Chrysopidae): a regression analysis. Acta Ent. Bohemoslov. 78, 76–86. New, T. R. (1967): The flight activity of rase British Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae, as indicated by suction trap catches. Proc. R. Ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 42, 93–100. New, T. R. and Haddow, J. A. (1973): Nocturnal flight activity of rare African Mantispidae (Neuroptera). J. Ent. (A) 47, 161–168. Williams, C. B. and Killington, F. J. (1935): Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae (Neur.) in a light-trap at Rothamsted Experimental Station. Trans. Soc. Brit. Ent. 2, 145–150.

Acta Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 34, 1999