predation and those which do not, provided that 

 observations are made soon after predation. We 

 conducted a preliminary study to quantify predation 

 in this way. 



In one of the three orchards where spiders were 

 collected for use in the feeding test (University of 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Research Center, 

 Belchertown), we inspected 600 randomly selected 

 leaves from 60 different apple trees on October 7. Of 

 these leaves, 228 had leafrniner mines, 20% of which 

 appeared damaged due to spider predation. In other 

 words, 20% of the leafrniner larvae in the orchard in 

 late September may have been prayed upon by 

 Anyphaenid spiders. To compare this finding with 

 what may be taking place in an orchard that has 

 more spiders, on November 5, we inspected 169 

 randomly selected leaves containing leafrniner lar- 

 vae on four apple trees in an abandoned apple 

 orchard (Orchard Hill area at the University of 

 Massachusetts at Amherst). Of these mines, 37% 

 appeared damaged due to predation of Anyphaenid 

 spiders. 



Even though these findings are very prelimi- 

 nary, they suggest that spiders of at least three 

 families exhibiting different foragingstrategies may 

 be able to prey upon some of the most troublesome 

 foliar pests of apple orchards. Aysha species of the 

 family Anyphaenidae, in particular, may play a 



beneficial role in leafhopper and leafrniner control. 

 In 1993, we plan to conduct feeding tests on more 

 spider species commonly found in second-level or- 

 chard blocks and more individuals of each species. 

 We also plan to conduct these tests under more 

 natural conditions than the highly confining condi- 

 tions of the laboratory used in 1992. We also hope to 

 investigate the relationship between spiders feeding 

 on leafminers and beneficial parasitoids feeding on 

 leafminers. For example, it would be important to 

 know if (and how much) spiders are likely to prey 

 upon parasitized leafminers. Are spiders beneficial 

 if they selectively extract parasitized leafrniner lar- 

 vae but leave unparasitized larvae alone? HopefuUy 

 our planned 1993 research wUI provide greater 

 insight into the value of spiders as biological control 

 agents of foliar apple pests. 



Acknowledgments 



This project was funded by the Massachusetts 

 Society for Promoting Agriculture, the USDA 

 Northeast Regional IPM Competitive Grant Pro- 

 gram, and State/Federal IPM funds. We gratefiilly 

 acknowledge this funding. We are grateful to the 

 following growers for their participation and sup- 

 port: Dana Clark, Dave Chandler, Dick Gilmore, 

 Tony Lincoln, Wayne Rice, and Joe Sincuk. 



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Apple Growing in China 



Ronald J. Prokopy, M^lliam M. Coli, and Jian Jun Duan 

 Department of Entomology, University of Massachusetts 



In Jiine of 1992, we had the wonderful oppor- 

 tunity of visiting several apple orchards in vari- 

 ous parts of east-central China in combination 

 with a trip to the International Congress of 

 Entomology in Bejing. We thought it might be 

 interesting to convey some of the things that 

 impressed us. 



First of all, a bit of history. According to our 

 Chinese colleagues, apples have been grown in 

 China for at least 2000 years. Apples are planted 

 on nearly four million acres in China, equal to 



about one-third of all acreage devoted to horti- 

 cultural crops. China is roughly the size and 

 shape of the continental United State. This 

 means that a greater percent of the land area of 

 China is devoted to apples than in the United 

 States (which has about 500,000 acres in 

 apples). Although production per acre is not 

 nearly as great in China as in the United States, 

 total production is about the same: 230 million 

 bushels a year. Many Chinese orchards are 

 newly planted, thus partly accoiinting for low 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1993 



