DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTIFICIAL DIET FOR THE GLASSY-WINGED SHARPSHOOTER

• Author(s): Cohen, Allen;
• Abstract: The glassy-winged sharpshooter (GWSS) (Homalodisca coagulata) is a serious pest of grapes and a number of other crops. Its most destructive characteristic is that it is an efficient vector of the bacterium that causes Pierces disease (Xylella fastidiosa). The management of this pest will, in all likelihood, require a multilateral set of approaches. Several of these approaches would be enhanced if the GWSS could be reared on a large-scale basis, especially with an artificial diet. Development of such a diet presents challenging barriers, including formulation of a liquid diet that closely simulates the xylem sap that is the target of GWSS. Understanding the feeding biology of this pest is complicated by the fact that it has cosmopolitan selection of hosts: i.e., it is a promiscuous feeder. However, formulation of a suitable diet is complicated by the fact that this species, which is a strict xylem sap-feeder, must be accommodated with a diet presentation system that simulates the vascular system of plants. Because the development of the diet and the feeding system must be done simultaneously, the probability of success of the entire project is reduced. The approaches to be taken to increase the chances of complete success include the analysis of xylem sap from several host plants, modeling the diets to be bioassayed after those analyses, attempting to use non-flowing and flowing systems of diet delivery, and microscopic studies of the feeding choices made by GWSS when using their natural hosts. Should all of these approaches work suitably, the need for an oviposition system will be born, and it will become a further aim of this project to develop an in vitro-based system that will allow harvesting of GWSS eggs with maximum efficiency.
• Publication Date: Dec 2001
• Journal: 2001 Pierce's Disease Research Symposium