Arnold van Huis
Personal Chair, Professor Tropical Entomology
PhD 1981, Wageningen University


Tel: +31-(0)317-484653
E-mail: arnold.vanhuis@wur.nl



Research

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important source of protein for many people in West Africa. Cowpea beans in these countries are severely infested with the storage beetle Callosobruchus maculatus. The beetle has several natural enemies among which the minute egg parasitoid Uscana lariophaga.



The research concerns:

• the foraging behaviour, how do the wasps find the eggs of the host in stored beans (role of host odours);
• the functional respons (the reaction to the host density and spatial distribution of the host); and
• the effect of host quality (brought about by host density or the bean species the bruchid feeds on) on the fitness of the egg parasitoid.

We collaborate with universities in London (U.K.), Tours (France), Cotonou (Benin) and Lomé (Togo).

Locusts are a dramatic crop pest, none more so than the Desert Locust which can infest a huge area from Mauritania to Bangladesh and roughly from the Mediterranean to the Equator in Africa. The Desert Locust like all locusts can exist in two phases, the solitarious and the gregarious. The former is not a threat but if numbers increase the locust come together to form bands at the nymphal stage and swarms of adults. The latter can travel thousand of kilometers borne along by the wind.
It is a truism with all locusts, that build up and consequent phase change follows "drought breaking" rains. It is known that herbage quality making use of accumulated minerals, is unusually good in such circumstances. This has been suggested as a factor in the production of a locust outbreak but the hypothesis has never been tested.
Testing is now what is proposed under MSc projects. In principle the plan will be to monitor various locust parameters - body weight, rate of development. longevity, fecundity - for locusts fed with herbage of different nitrogen levels in the laboratory. This would be followed by field studies probably during the winter/spring locust breeding season on the Red Sea coast. The study has potentially profound implications since if substantiated if would undermine the current view that outbreaks leading to plagues are most likely when non-swarming locusts are found most frequently.


MSc-thesis

You are a student who is interested in tropical entomology and vector biology? There are several possibilities for you in The Netherlands and abroad.Click on the links to find out more!


Publications

Click here to retrieve all publications by Arnold van Huis.