Université du Québec à Montréal
B.Sc. candidate
Supervisor: Pierre-Olivier Montiglio
Mathieu Videllier, Université du Québec à Montréal
Start: 2022-06-13

Project

Biological Factors Influencing Locomotion of the Tarnished Bug
Tarnished plant bugs are pests that damage the development of strawberries in Quebec, causing enormous economic losses. We are currently using insecticides and biological control methods to limit populations in the fields. However, these methods are not effective with species that can disperse easily, such as the tarnished plant bug. Better understanding the dispersion of the tarnished plant bug is therefore essential to optimize our control methods. We know that the more fertile individuals in a population are also often more active. It would thus be possible that insecticides mainly target the least active and least fertile individuals, and therefore the least virulent for the crops. The objective of this project will be to determine the relationships between the size, sex, morphology, fecundity of individual tarnished bugs and their locomotor performances. We will repeatedly measure the average and maximum performance of walking, climbing, and flying in the laboratory, as well as the size, mass, and length of the locomotor limbs (wings and legs) of 100 adult tarnished bugs captured on different strawberry fields in the Mirabel area (QC). We will establish mesocosms within which we can follow the movement of individuals between plants. We will also quantify the longevity and fecundity of these individuals. Better understanding the biological factors that affect insect mobility will allow us to better advise producers who are fighting this pest and to optimize the effectiveness of control methods.

Keywords

Locomotion, Tarnished Bug, Maximum performance, Biological Factors