Flight Performance of the Soybean Aphid,Aphis glycines(Hemiptera: Aphididae) Under Different Temperature and Humidity Regimens

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines (Matsumura), is native to eastern Asia and has recently invaded North America, where it is currently the most important insect pest of soybeans. The soybean aphid has spread rapidly within North America, presumably through a combination of active and passive (wind-aided) ight. Here, we studied the active ight potential of A. glycines under a range of environmental conditions using an aphid ight mill. Winged (alate) A. glycines were tested on a specially designed 32-channel, computer-monitored ight mill system. Aphids that were 1224 h old exhibited the strongest ight behavior, with average ight durations of 3.3 4.1 h, which represented ight distances of 4.6 5.1 km. After the age of 72 h, A. glycines ight performance rapidly declined. The optimum temperature range for ight was 16 28C, whereas optimum relative humidity was 75%. Our ndings show that A. glycines posseses a fairly strong active ight aptitude (ability and inclination) and point to the possibility of ight initiation under a broad range of environmental conditions. These results have the potential to aid forecasting and management protocols for A. glycines at the landscape level.