Effetti top down e bottom up di Infrastrutture Ecologiche in frutteti e vigneti dell'Emilia-Romagna

In this research the effect of ecological infrastructures at different spatial scales on parasitoids populations was been studied. The study was conducted in vineyards located in the hills in Bologna province, North Italy. Ecological infrastructures within the vineyard such as edge hedges and other perimeter structures and external ecological networks have been mapped and measured by GIS. Parasitoid biodiversity was sampled with Malaise traps between June and October 2016. Many of the hymenopteran families captured have shown positive correlations with the increase in the heterogeneity of the plant component of the habitats considered. Another section of this work describes a research on the use of traps crops placed near pear orchards for the control of the exotic insect Halyomorpha halys (Stål, 1885). For this purpose, four trap crop species were sowed: fava bean, pea, soybean and green pea. The dynamics of brown marmorated stink bug populations in such trap crop species were assessed by visual count and also by sweep net sampling. Fava bean and soybean proved to be markedly more successful than pea and green pea in attracting brown marmorated stink bugs. A further investigation concerning H. halys was carried out by infesting in a controlled manner some bunches of grapes (Cabernet Franc variety) in order to verify the possible influence of insect feeding bites on the qualitative characteristics of Must. In particular, the trans-2-esen-1-ol and 1-hexanol have been detected in larger quantities in musts obtained from clusters on which the bug has not been fed. In the end, in the spring of 2018 has been identified the opportunity to detect and monitor its presence in the Maltese archipelago. This survey was carried out with the use of pheromone traps of the glue type and allowed to ascertain the presence of the insect on the island of Malta.