The nature and causes of annual fluctuations in numbers of Aphis fabae Scop. on field beans (Vicia faba)

Experiments for nine successive years showed that Aphis fabae Scop. populations on mid-March-sown field beans were either large with peak densities between late June and mid-July or very small with peak densities in early August. It is concluded that the largest populations develop when many plants have been colonized by primary migrants from Euonymus europaeus and temperature and radiation are above average during June and early July, as in the year 1957. Cold, dull weather slows multiplication and decreases the size of the peak population even when there is a large initial colonization, as in 1954. The peak population may also be less than predicted from the initial colonization when natural enemies are exceptionally abundant in early June, as in the year 1960. Yield losses of mid-March-sown crops in years of large A. fabae populations ranged from 53 % in 1954 (peak population of 1260 aphids per plant) to 100% in 1957 (6920 aphids per plant). Small summer populations with peak densities of about 0·2–85 aphids per plant developed on mid-March-sown plots in years when fewer than about 6% of the plants were colonized by primary migrants. Yield losses ranged from 6·3–13·6%. Three years' experiments indicated that crops sown in late April or May are relatively lightly infested in years when large populations develop on mid-March-sown crops. Conversely, they may be relatively heavily infested when the populations on these crops are small, as in 1955 when temperatures and sunshine during July and early August were above average. Small and large early summer populations tend to alternate in successive years. The alternation is upset by hot, sunny weather during July and August, and perhaps September and October, which compresses the population cycle Thus the large and small populations expected from this alternation in 1956 and 1960 developed instead during exceptionally fine weather in late summer 1955 and 1959, converting 1956 and 1960 to years of small and large populations respectively.