Chapter 21. Ray F. Smith and Harold T. Reynolds. 1972. Effects of manipulation of cotton agro-ecosystems on insect pest populations. Pages 373-406.

Keywords: negative impact of insecticides on the cotton agroecosystem in Central and South America, USA, Middle East and Australia, cotton production by country 1967-68, components of the cotton agroecosystem, the cotton plants, volunteer cotton plants prolong cotton insect pests, the species and varieties of cotton Gossypium arboretum, G. herbaceum, G. hirsutum, G. barbadense, host plant resistance, Empoasca solana leafhoppers, thrips, whiteflies, cotton stainers, spider mites, low gossypol content in resistant plants, chrysomelids Maecolaspis flavida and Gastrophyta cyanea, blister beetle, Epicauta vittata, glandless cotton resistant to cotton leafworm Alabama argillacea, fruiting characteristics and compensation from damage, insect species complex, Spodoptera littoralis formerly fed entirely on leaves but recently transfers to bolls, natural mortality from parasitoids and predators (Chrysopa, Nabis, Geocoris, Orius) has been compromised due to the effect of broad spectrum insecticides, Lygus and Heliothis are essentially free to reproduce late in the cotton growing season without beneficial arthropods, effect of nitrogen in stimulating insect pest fecundity, fifty short mountain streams dissect Peru, some have longer lasting streams while others are of a shorter duration, each valley is a self-contained agroecosystem, as a result each has a different intensity of insect pest density, and a different pattern of pest control was developed as a result, irrigation makes for more succulent plants and thus greater insect pest damage, this was noted with the cotton leaf perforator Bucculatrix thurberiella and a whitefly Trialeurodes abutillonea, when the crop is opened up by skipping one or several rows these two insect pests cause less damage, thus even though the rows are skipped higher yields per area result from the benefit of lower insect pest densities, weather and climate, insect parasitoids and predators and pathogens, Trichogramma spp., influence of agronomic practices on pest populations, trap crops, modifying fertilizer rates, planting time, cultural pest control, heterogeneity in cotton agroecosystems, hedgerows to increase plant diversity, kinds of diversity, insecticide resurgence, area wide effect of growing corn and alfalfa in cotton areas, field size, economics of crop protection, role

of chemical control, insect resistance to insecticides, Turkey, Texas, Imperial Valley, San Joaquin Valley in California, Australia, Cañete Valley of Peru