The analysis and reconstruction of diurnal flight curves in alienicolae of aphis fabae scop

Experiments, in which alate aphids were marked immediately after eclosion from the last nymphal instar and observed until they took flight, gave information which, together with the measured rate of moulting and a continuous record of temperature, has been used to construct theoretical daily curves for numbers flying from a bean crop. These curves have been matched against the observed curves for the same days. The differences between curves so constructed for a period of 17 days and the observed curves for the same period are of the same order and kind as the differences between two measured curves in different sites at the same time. The different types of daily flight curve can thus be accounted for in terms of the rate of production of alatae by moulting, the effect of temperature on the teneral ('drying out') period and the effect of low light intensity and temperature on takeoff behaviour.