Filipe Madeira

• Ph.D. Insect Pest Management
• Professor (Assistant) at Escola Superior Agráriaolytechnic Institute of Santarém

Context The alfalfa weevil Hypera postica Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is one of the most destructive pests of alfalfa worldwide. Both local and landscape-scale factors can significantly influence crop pests, natural enemies, and the effectiveness of biological control services, but the relative influence of these factors is unclear. Obje...

Illinoia liriodendri (Monell) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an Eastern North American native aphid species that infests ornamental tulip trees, Liriodendron tulipifera L. (Magnoliales: Magnoliaceae), in many localities of Spain and southern Europe. This is a comprehensive three-year study on the biology and ecology of the aphid, where its life cycle, p...

Trabajos anteriores realizados en la Cuenca del Ebro han demostrado que tanto las variables del paisaje en donde se inserta el cultivo del maíz como las variables relacionadas con el manejo del propio campo influyen significativamente en la abundancia de insectos herbívoros y de sus enemigos naturales. Dado que esos trabajos también mostraron la im...

Soybean plants that express various insecticidal proteins of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis have been widely adopted globally in many crop systems. This technology effectively controls the main defoliating pest species in most countries and reduces insecticide spray requirements. However, widespread use of Bt crops also generates high selecti...

Oleander is very frequently planted as an ornamental shrub in urban areas of the Mediterranean. Its most common pest is the aphid Aphis nerii, and heavy infestations produce aesthetic damage and disturbances to the citizens, and they are frequently sprayed with insecticides in order to reduce the population density. One alternative method is conser...

Cropland expansion has been occurring over the last century, especially in South America, displacing non-crop areas mainly with soybean. Changes at a landscape level were followed by changes at a local scale, such as the adoption of insect-resistant transgenic crops. The homogenization of agroecosystem composition and agronomic practices have a gre...

Dear Colleagues, Fruits and vegetables have multiple health benefits, with numerous organizations (WHO, FAO, EFSA, USDA) recommending their consumption. Global demand for fruits and vegetables has grown over the past decade, leading to intensification in agricultural practices in many countries. The overuse of some intensive practices (e.g., pesti...

Background Temperature directly influences the survival, development and reproduction of insects and limits their biological activity. The alfalfa weevil (Hypera postica Gyllenhal) is a destructive pest of alfalfa crops in Spain and in most of the alfalfa production countries. The knowledge of how temperature affects the fitness of this pest can be...

Knowledge of the insect densities during crop development is necessary for adopting appropriate measures for the control of insect pests and minimizing yield losses. Within integrated pest management programs, crop rotation has been carried out in recent years, but this current trend delays the planting period for Bt maize. The small amount of avai...

Knowledge of the specific insect densities during crop development is necessary to perform appropriate measures for the control of insect pests and to minimize yield losses. In a previous study, both spatial and temporal approaches were adopted to analyse the influence of landscape structure and field variables on herbivore and predatory insects on...

We assess the effects of changing land use and crop management on alfalfa insect abundance by comparing it in 50 alfalfa fields when they were inserted in landscapes with different proportions of arable crops and orchards. Land use in a buffer of 500 m was assessed, and alfalfa insect abundance was estimated with sticky yellow traps. The number of...

The combined effect of the temperature and relative humidity on the survival and development time of the eggs of Spanish populations of the weevil Hypera postica, a key pest of alfalfa around the world, was evaluated under laboratory conditions. The experimental temperatures ranged from 8 to 36 °C, in 4 °C increments. Three relative humidity ranges...

The traditional agricultural landscape of Ebro Basin (NE Spain), which is mainly composed of alfalfa and cereal crops, has undergone changes in recent years, mainly consisting of an increase in the area occupied by intensively managed irrigated orchards. Recently, it has been reported that the presence of a higher proportion of orchards in the land...

Las interacciones tróficas, la estructura del paisaje, el manejo de los cultivos y los cambios constantes en las políticas agrícolas dificultan el estudio de los patrones de los insectos en los hábitats agrícolas. Investigaciones recientes dirigidas a comprender los efectos del incremento en la superficie de los cultivos sobre las especies, ponen d...

En la cuenca del Ebro, la alfalfa y el maíz son los cultivos extensivos que predominan en el paisaje en verano. Los enemigos naturales en estos cultivos tienen un papel importante en el control de plagas. El movimiento de los enemigos naturales entre cultivos depende de la estructura del paisaje en el que la agricultura se inserta. Así pues, los ca...

Alfalfa is a reservoir providing natural enemies to adjacent crops. However, whether these crops act only as receptors or also as donors is unknown. The pattern of movement between alfalfa and maize of Orius majusculus, Orius niger and Nabis provencalis and the role of both crops as “donor” or “receptor” were inferred through carbon and nitrogen st...

Slow establishment and risks of plant damage are major constraints for the use of the predatory mirid bugs that are commercially available for release in greenhouse crops. Therefore, a new interest has turned towards two predatory Dicyphus species (Heteroptera: Miridae) that have been investigated in the past but have not been used commercially in...

La alfalfa es un cultivo muy importante en la rotación de cultivos extensivos del Valle del Ebro, y concentra el 60% de la producción en España. La alfalfa se ha descrito como un gran insectario natural con especies plaga específicas y multitud de especies beneficiosas, considerándose como un importante reservorio de enemigos naturales. • Un grupo...

Plant–aphid–parasitoid associations in urban green areas of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula were analysed to identify the diversity of aphid parasitoid species, their trophic relationships and to improve the results of biological control efforts. In 245 tritrophic plant–aphid–parasitoid associations, 33 Aphidiinae species belonging to 13 genera...

Significance Decades of research have fostered the now-prevalent assumption that noncrop habitat facilitates better pest suppression by providing shelter and food resources to the predators and parasitoids of crop pests. Based on our analysis of the largest pest-control database of its kind, noncrop habitat surrounding farm fields does affect multi...

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on p...

Oenopia conglobata is one of the most common ladybird species in urban green areas of the Mediterranean region. We have obtained data about its prey acceptability and prey preferences. In a laboratory experiment, we investigated the acceptability of seven aphid and one psyllid species as prey for this coccinellid: the aphidsChaitophorus populeti, A...

In many agricultural landscapes perennial and annual crops are adjacent and an exchange of natural enemies between crops and surrounding areas may occur. Traditionally, annual crops are described as “receptor” habitats because they are subject to frequent and severe disturbances and need to be colonised by arthropods every year. By contrast, perenn...

Spillover effects of organisms from semi-natural habitats to adjacent crops have been frequently reported, yet evidence for the reversed process and associated functional consequences remains scarce. We examined the spillover of carabids, rove beetles and spiders from agricultural lands to protected, high-nature value calcareous grasslands by compa...

In the north‐east I berian Peninsula, in summer, arable crop landscapes are characterized by a mosaic of alfalfa and maize. Although carabids are among the main predators in both crops, crop management can affect their movement. The main aim of the present study was to measure the movement of the four most abundant carabid species ( Calathus fuscip...

The movement between alfalfa and maize of three of the most common aphidophagous coccinellids in southern Europe was determined using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis at four periods during the growing season. The isotope analysis revealed movement between alfalfa and maize but patterns were different between the three species. While Coc...

Orius majusculus Reuter (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae) is the most common and abundant generalist predator in Spanish maize crops and is sensitive to drastic changes in weed density. We carried out a 2-year study in the NE Iberian Peninsula to examine the dispersal of O. majusculus in maize plots with moderately high and low weed density. Insects were...

The parasitism (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) of alfalfa aphids (Hemiptera, Aphididae) was determined during three crop growing seasons. The highest rates of parasitism of Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris and of Therioaphis trifolii Monell occurred during the first-second and the fourth alfalfa intercuts, respectively. The landscape surrounding th...

To know whether, how and when natural enemies switch between crops can help to delimitate their role as a reservoir and to manage the landscape in order to improve biological control functions. Carbon stable isotope analysis may be used for tracking predator movement because plant signature remains up in the food web and can be traced in herbivores...

Orius majusculus Reuter (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae) is an important component of the pest preda-tory complex in arable crops in Mediterranean areas. It moves between crops searching for prey, and improving knowledge on its dispersal abilities will help to develop conservation biological control strategies. Stable isotope ratios may be used as a tool...

Though genetically modified (GM) crops have been rapidly adopted in world agriculture, concern has been expressed about the environmental risks that they may involve. In order to identify and measure the effects on NTOs (non-target organisms) of transgenic traits of crops such as Bt corn, which has been designed to kill target species, a tiered app...

Pseudaletia (Mythimna) unipuncta (Haworth) is a maize leaf feeder pest occurring every year in the Ebro Valley that causes occasional but sometimes devastating damages. The increasing cultivation of Bt maize in Spain has reduced very much the damage of corn borers, Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefebvre) and Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner). However, is it not...