This data belongs to the paper published in Functional Ecology, with the title: Crop species diversity levels with attract and reward strategies to enhance Pieris brassicae parasitism rate by Cotesia glomerata in strip intercropping. See the published paper and the readme files for information on methods, techniques and other relevant information.
Abstract:
We assessed parasitism rates of released large cabbage white (Pieris brassicae) caterpillars by parasitoids on white cabbage (Brassica oleracea) plants in six different cropping systems: four different strip cropping designs, a pixel cropping design and a monoculture. These cropping designs differed in the number of crops included, the use of parasitoid attractive cultivars in concurrence with a cash cultivar, the use of nectar-providing crops for adult parasitoids, and the spatial arrangement of the crops. Parasitism rate by the main P. brassicae parasitoid Cotesia glomerata was enhanced by strip cropping of white cabbage with wheat, and even further enhanced by the inclusion of four more main crops. Contrastingly, C. glomerata parasitism rate was lower in the most intensive crop mixture, i.e., pixel cropping, than in any of the strip cropping designs. The use of attractive cultivars or rewarding floral resources within a strip cropping set-up did not significantly further enhance C. glomerata parasitism rate.
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