Movement pattern of Spartocera dentiventris (Berg) (Hemiptera: Coreidae) in an experimental crop of Nicotiana tabacum L. (Solanaceae).

In the present work we investigated the movement pattern of Spartocera (= Corecoris) dentiventris (Berg) (Hemiptera: Coreidae) adults through the mark-release-recapture method in an experimental tobacco crop (Nicotiana tabacum L., Solanaceae) in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. We marked 217 specimens from August 1999 to April 2000. Females moved 2.94 +/- 0.198 times and males 1.46 +/- 0.171 times among host plants. The number of movements per capture was 0.53 +/- 0.03 for females and 0.54 +/- 0.06 for males. Newly recruited adults took 12.75 +/- 0.919 days to leave their original plant, females moved 9.87 +/- 0.711 m and males 9.16 +/- 1.29 m in this first movement. We estimate that females move an average of 26.22 m and males 13.89 m during their permanence in the area.