Do thunderstorms affect the flight behavior of thrips?
Kirk WDJ
School of Life Sciences, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.
Correspondence: w.d.j.kirk@keele.ac.uk
Across northern Europe, thrips are popularly associated with thunderstorms. Although they fly mainly in fine weather, there is indirect evidence that they land when thunderstorms are near. The effect is most obvious for abundant species, such as cereal thrips. One hypothesis is that thrips cannot fly in rapidly changing electric fields that occur near thunderstorms, so they are forced to land (Kirk WDJ. 2004. Phytopathologica et Entomologica Hungarica 39: 131¨C136). Experiments are needed to test the effects of electric fields on the flight behavior of thrips.
