Núcleo de Ecologia e Manejo de Insetos – NEMI

A paper recently published by members of NEMI in the Brazilian Journal of Entomology is among the most read papers in the journal in 2016. The paper entitled “Biotic factors are more important than abiotic factors in regulating the abundance of Plutella xylostella L. in Southern Brazil” was published in October 2016 and discusses the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on the abundance of an important pest of brassica crops. The study demonstrated that larval parasitoids play an important role in the population regulation of the pest, and therefore control measures aiming to maximize the survival of the parasitoids may be used to reduce the abundance of the pest in the field.