Dispersal of the sugar-cane scale Aulacaspis tegalensis (Zhnt.) (Hem., Diaspididae) by air currents

By means of sticky traps and a suction trap, it was demonstrated on a plot of sugar-cane at Kawanda Research Station, Uganda, that large numbers of crawlers of Aulacaspis tegalensis (Zhnt.) become airborne (up to 10/m3). The numbers increase with wind speed up to about 2·0 m/s and then remain constant, but are depressed by increasing humidity. In laboratory experiments, crawler survival was reduced by high temperatures (30°C) and low humidities (30% r.h.), but some individuals should survive the extreme conditions sometimes experienced if airborne from morning until evening. On hatching, crawlers move upwards and towards the light, but downwards in the dark; movement is inhibited by high humidity. These behaviour responses indicate hat the presence of crawlers in the air is not accidental but a dispersal mechanism. At Arusha Chini, an isolated sugar estate in Tanzania, sticky-trap catches downwind of a windbreak confirmed that airborne dispersal of crawlers is a major source of infestation. It is shown that air currents could have carried crawlers to Arusha Chini from a source on the Kenya coast, 260 km to the east.