KEYS TO MANAGEMENT OF GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER: INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HOST PLANTS, MALNUTRITION, AND NATURAL ENEMIES

• Author(s): Mizell, Russell;
• Abstract: evolved many unusual adaptations that enable subsistence on xylem fluid. Adult GWSS may feed on hundreds of different host species, are long lived and exceptionally mobile and fecund. Nutrition affects GWSS female fecundity and longevity, and malnutrition is a primary source of mortality of immatures. We have established that adults prefer to feed on xylem fluid with specific chemical characteristics (high amide concentrations). Nymphs develop more successfully on xylem fluid with low amide concentrations and proportionally higher concentrations of many of the more dilute amino acids that are deemed essential for the development of most insects. We have also established the physiological basis for this phenomenon: adults can more efficiently use nitrogen and carbon from high amide concentrations than can young developing nymphs cannot. Given the pivotal status of host plant nutrition on GWSS behavior and survival, we are investigating GWSS behavior and that of its parasitoids in field and laboratory experiments to elucidate how the underlying feeding and oviposition behavioral mechanisms relate to host plant quality. The behaviors involved in host selection can be divided into two extremes. In the first, selection takes place after insects contact the host, the second extreme implies that the insect perceives plant characteristics at a distance and select hosts based on these perceptions. These two extremes can be described as host-plant recognition and host-plant finding. Host plant recognition is less well known in the literature, but our research is addressing behaviors involved in both categories.
• Publication Date: Dec 2002
• Journal: 2002 Pierce's Disease Research Symposium