2007 Annual Report 1a.Objectives (from AD-416) Conduct laboratory, greenhouse, and field experiments examining the non-lethal and sub- lethal effects of pest management practices on pollinator biology and behavior, and subsequently on crop pollination. Conduct laboratory, field, and greenhouse experiments to examine the lethal effects of pest management practices on pollinators and subsequently on crop pollination. 1b.Approach (from AD-416) As a result of progress made in 2003, personnel and experimental protocols needed to conduct studies addressing the project objectives for 2004 are currently available. The specialty crops grant providing 61% of the Research Support Scientist salary is funded through Dec. of 2004. Progress towards meeting these objectives in 2004 should, therefore, be good. We will determine new compounds to be tested for lethal effects in 2004 (objective 2). Since few new chemicals for Lygus/aphid control are available, this list is expected to be shorter than the list of compounds tested in 2003. To the extent this is true more resources will be allocated to experiments examining for lethal effects of compounds in residual assays of field-treated foliage for compounds for which LD50 values were established in 2003, or are established in 2004 (objective 2). Compounds with LD50 values greater than 10 times the field rate will be given low priority in these tests. We will continue to conduct field cage experiments examining for sub lethal/non-lethal effects of compounds for which LD50's have been established. Because these experiments require a considerable amount of time to complete, they will be conducted only for a subset of the available compounds that are considered to have high potential for use in alfalfa seed. We also plan to make information from completed objectives available on the alfalfa seed industry web site, www.alfalfaseed.org, by March 1, 2004. 3.Progress Report This report serves to document research conducted under a specific cooperative agreement between ARS and the University of Idaho. Additional details of the research can be found in the report for the related parent project 5428-21000-010-00D Pollinating-Insect Biology, Management, and Systematics Research. Studies examining the interaction of phosphorus (P) fertilization with flower production, pollination and seed yield indicated that the number of bracts per plot and pods per plot were not significantly affected by added P. Pod survival but not flowering appeared to be limited at added P levels > 50 lbs/A. Poorer pollination with higher available P probably does not explain the results since the percent of bracts with pods was either unaffected or increased at higher added P. A higher percentage of light seed with higher available P suggests that resources for seed filling were more limited, or that there was greater depredation of seed by lygus or chalcid at higher P rates. While the results do not support the contention that greater vegetative growth with higher P adversely affected pollinator visitation, there appears to be little reason for growers to apply additional P for alfalfa seed production in normal SW Idaho crop rotations. Experiments evaluating mortality of adult lygus bugs collected from grower fields and tested against pyrethriod (bifenthrin, lambda cyhalothrin), carbamate (formetanate HCL, methomyl) and organophsphate (oxydematon methyl, methidathion) pesticides indicated resistance to pyrethroid and organophosphate compounds in some grower fields and therefore a potential increase pesticide hazard for alfalfa leafcutting bees in fields harboring insecticide resistant lygus. The reduced- risk insecticide, novaluran, was used under 24c registration in 2006 to successfully control lygus in most, but not all grower fields in which it was used. Data on novaluran efficacy against lygus and toxicity to adult alfalfa leaf cutting bees and to lygus natural enemies, produced from research funded through this SCA, was used to support this registration. Trials conducted in 2006 indicate that the reduced-risk compound flonicamid has potential to provide effective lygus and aphid control. Toxicity of this compound to leafcutter bees and to lygus predators will be tested in 2007. ADODR monitoring activities included e-mails and conference calls.