0 a type of very small animal with six legs, a body divided into three parts and usually two pairs of wings, or, more generally, any similar very small animal: --
1 a type of small animal with six legs, a body divided into three parts, and often two pairs of wings, for example, an ant, beetle, or butterfly --
However, fruit set under open field conditions was frequently near 100%, whereas fruit set in these insect enclosures averaged only 56.0%.
He suggested that crop diversity increases the populations of natural enemies of insect pests.
Firstly, alien insects causing economic damage are more likely and more rapidly discovered than insects that are economically harmless.
Farmers were asked to rate (as good, fair or bad) storage behaviour in terms of keeping quality and tolerance to insect pests.
The above study suggested that dipterous larvae might be good test insects since their availability was fairly steady throughout the year.
The model further assumes that mortality rates are equal among the developmental stages and that developmental rates are homogeneous among individual insects.
The sterile insect technique has demonstrated its ability to reduce fruit fly populations, and consequently reduce damage to fruit.
Yet it is questionable whether these scientific developments have been applied effectively to develop solutions to remove the constraints placed on mankind by insects.
