Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Cereal aphids, both English Grain, Sitobion avenae, and Oat-Birdcherry aphids, Rhopalosiphum padi, are migratory threats to cereal production in Canada. One parasitoid, Aphidius avenaphis, dominates the parasitoid complex when these aphids invade fields in Western Canada. However, the number of aphids killed per day (voracity) of this parasitoid was unknown. This presentation details experiments to determine that voracity so that natural enemy units for a dynamic action threshold can be calculated for these parasitoids.
