Survival Time, Mortality Rate, and Feeding Damage of Adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Exposed to Biopesticides in Laboratory Bioassays
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript "Survival time, mortality rate, and feeding behavior of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) exposed to biopesticides in laboratory bioassays" describes the effect of three fungal and three biochemical biopesticides, and one chemical insecticide against Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus. The manuscript is well written and designed, although somewhat preliminary. I strongly suggest to add more current references, and check the citation rules provide in Instructions to Authors.
Specific comments:
l.17 - Correct cocoplum
l.122-124, 130 - How did you select these concentrations? Manufacturer suggestion?
l.133 - It was hard for me to completely understand the bioassay cages. Could you add more photos in figure 1 to help?
l.165 - Was it used 80 mL per treatment or per replicate?
l.227-230 - Is it necessary to describe statistical data of each trial? Isn't it enough the final comparison at lines 230-231?
l.238 - Rewriting suggestion: Mean survival times (days) of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus on cocoplum leaves treated with PFR-97™ 20% WDG (PFR), BotaniGard® ES (BG), Met52® EC (MET), Entrust® SC (ET), PyGanic® EC 1.4II (PY), Aza-Max™ (AZ), Sevin® SL (SV), and water only (C).
Figure 6 - Standardize y-axis in graphs, include Mean ± SE or not
l.356 - Canidida, correct to Candida
l.371 - What are the differences among the biochemical and synthetic active ingredients? Why is nothing discussed about Sevin?
l.373 - Is there any correlation between higher mortality and lower feeding damages? Why?
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript "Survival time, mortality rate, and feeding behavior of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) exposed to biopesticides in laboratory bioassays" describes the effect of three fungal and three biochemical biopesticides, and one chemical insecticide against Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus. The manuscript is well written and designed, although somewhat preliminary. I strongly suggest to add more current references, and check the citation rules provide in Instructions to Authors.
Author response: The Sri Lankan beetle is only a recent invasive pest in the USA, so much of the literature available concerning this pest is less current than this research.
Specific comments:
l.17 - Correct cocoplum
Author response: cocoplum spelling corrected.
l.122-124, 130 - How did you select these concentrations? Manufacturer suggestion?
Author response: Concentrations followed product label rates and are detail in the Methods section.
l.133 - It was hard for me to completely understand the bioassay cages. Could you add more photos in
Author response: There are no more photos available to add.
l.165 - Was it used 80 mL per treatment or per replicate?
Author response: We added “per replicate” to read as follows Each bottle was labeled with one of eight treatments and filled with 80 ml of the corresponding solution.... The cocoplum leaves were sprayed per replicate on both surfaces to the point of runoff.
l.227-230 - Is it necessary to describe statistical data of each trial? Isn't it enough the final comparison at lines 230-231?
Author response: All trials were combined and ST50 values for each treatment were statistically compared using a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis censored at 15 days (log rank test: X2 = 399.75, df = 8, P < 0.0001).
l.238 - Rewriting suggestion: Mean survival times (days) of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus on cocoplum leaves treated with PFR-97™ 20% WDG (PFR), BotaniGard® ES (BG), Met52® EC (MET), Entrust® SC (ET), PyGanic® EC 1.4II (PY), Aza-Max™ (AZ), Sevin® SL (SV), and water only (C).
Author response: Suggestion incorporated into the Figure graph title.
Figure 6 - Standardize y-axis in graphs, include Mean ± SE or not
Author response: The y-axis mean ± SE is standardized for all treatments in the graph; treatment bar Entrust and Pyganic; were both 1.0 ± 0.0; thus, no SE bar will be present.
l.356 - Canidida, correct to Candida
Author response: Spelling corrected.
l.371 - What are the differences among the biochemical and synthetic active ingredients? Why is nothing discussed about Sevin?
Author response: The important differences relevant to our study are described in the text. Our research based on formulated products did not delve into how the active ingredients chemically affected the physiology of the adult weevil. Therefore, any further description of the differences among active ingredients would be superfluous.
l.373 - Is there any correlation between higher mortality and lower feeding damages? Why?
Author response: The correlation of higher mortality seen with Entrust and the lower feeding damages is cited on l.294-295, 304-306.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear authors,
Your paper is very interesting and significant for the entire scientific community. I ask you to technically harmonize the work with the magazine's requirements.
Best Regards
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
Dear authors,
Your paper is very interesting and significant for the entire scientific community. I ask you to technically harmonize the work with the magazine's requirements.
Author response: Thanks for your positive comments. The work is harmonized with the journal’s requirements.
Reviewer 3 Report
1. The survival times and mortality were the cumulative time and mortality at the 15th day after the treatment, it is not enough to evaluate the infection and control efficacy, may be the number of dead or alive insects should be observed daily after the treatmnents.
2.From the title, there is another content “ feeding behavior of adult” , but no methods for the observation of the feeding behavior of adult in Material and methods , and results.
3. Line193 : 2.6. Mycosis: All dead insects per treatment at 15 d were removed from the…. placed in Petri dishes…, to avoid the cross-infection of dead insects, those dead insects should be placed in Petri dishes individually, that means one dead insect per petri dish.
4. Line194: All dead insects per treatment at 15 d were removed from the bioassay cages,……: the live insects may be cross infected rather than the original infection.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
- The survival times and mortality were the cumulative time and mortality at the 15th day after the treatment, it is not enough to evaluate the infection and control efficacy, may be the number of dead or alive insects should be observed daily after the treatments.
Author response: We disagree. The number of adult weevils per replicate cage were monitored daily and were analyzed using a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis censored at 15 days (log rank test: X2 = 399.75, df = 8, P < 0.0001).
2. From the title, there is another content “ feeding behavior of adult” , but no methods for the observation of the feeding behavior of adult in Material and methods, and results.
Author response: Excellent point; we will amend the title of the manuscript to read as follows “Survival time, mortality rate, and feeding damage of adult ….in laboratory bioassays.”
- Line193 : 2.6. Mycosis: All dead insects per treatment at 15 d were removed from the…. placed in Petri dishes…, to avoid the cross-infection of dead insects, those dead insects should be placed in Petri dishes individually, that means one dead insect per petri dish.
Author response: Dead insects per treatment were placed in the same Petri dish, not individually in separate Petri dishes.
- Line194: All dead insects per treatment at 15 d were removed from the bioassay cages,……: the live insects may be cross infected rather than the original infection.
Author response: we agree, some cross-contamination may have occurred.
Reviewer 4 Report
The manuscript entitled “ Survival time, mortality rate, and feeding behavior of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus (Coleoptera: Curculio-nidae) exposed to biopesticides in laboratory bioassays” is quite interesting and deserves appreciation. The study is conducted in a well-organized way and is also represented systematically. Overall, the study can be accepted for publication. However, it will be better if the authors can emphasize more on the applicability of the findings of this study.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The manuscript entitled “ Survival time, mortality rate, and feeding behavior of adult Myllocerus undecimpustulatus undatus (Coleoptera: Curculio-nidae) exposed to biopesticides in laboratory bioassays” is quite interesting and deserves appreciation. The study is conducted in a well-organized way and is also represented systematically. Overall, the study can be accepted for publication. However, it will be better if the authors can emphasize more on the applicability of the findings of this study.
Author response: Applicability of the findings of this study has been emphasized at the end of the Conclusions section (lines 389-390).
