Milkweed (Gentianales: Apocynaceae): A farmscape resource for increasing parasitism of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) and providing nectar to insect pollinators and monarch butterflies
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Published source details
Tillman P.G. & Carpenter J.E. (2014) Milkweed (Gentianales: Apocynaceae): A farmscape resource for increasing parasitism of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) and providing nectar to insect pollinators and monarch butterflies. Environmental Entomology, 43, 370-376.
Published source details Tillman P.G. & Carpenter J.E. (2014) Milkweed (Gentianales: Apocynaceae): A farmscape resource for increasing parasitism of stink bugs (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) and providing nectar to insect pollinators and monarch butterflies. Environmental Entomology, 43, 370-376.
Actions
This study is summarised as evidence for the following.
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Plant nectar flower mixture/wildflower strips Action Link |
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Plant nectar flower mixture/wildflower strips
A study in 2009 on a peanut-cotton farm in Georgia, USA (Tillman & Carpenter 2014) reported that tropical milkweed Asclepias curassavica plants placed between peanut and cotton fields were used by monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus. Milkweed plants were visited by 0–0.03 monarch butterflies/plant/observation. Monarch caterpillars were also observed feeding on milkweed plants and developing in to pupae. In 2009, four plots (23 × 61 m) were established between a 10-ha peanut field and 9-ha cotton field (each planted in May). Two weeks before cotton bolls appeared, 25 potted, greenhouse grown, flowering tropical milkweed plants/plot were placed 1.2 m apart along a 1-m-wide strip of bare ground between the crops. On eight days in August 2009, each milkweed plant was observed for 15 seconds/day to record adult monarchs feeding on the flowers, and the presence of caterpillars was noted.
(Summarised by: Andrew Bladon)
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