Premium
Insect feeding on different sorghum cultivars in relation to cyanide and phenolic acid content
Author(s) -
WOODHEAD S.,
PADGHAM D. E.,
BERNAYS E. A.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1980.tb04733.x
Subject(s) - biology , rhopalosiphum maidis , sorghum , nymph , insect , mythimna separata , instar , larva , pest analysis , antibiosis , agronomy , botany , cultivar , lygaeidae , homoptera , heteroptera , genetics , aphididae , bacteria
SUMMARY Insect feeding on sorghum was studied in the field and in the laboratory. Quantitative differences in cyanogenesis and phenolic acid content were also measured on the same or simillar plants. High concentrations of cyanide were correlated with a reduction in feeding by grasshoppers and by first‐instar larvae of Chilo partellus; high concentrations of phenolic acids were correlated with reduced feeding by various grasshoppers and by the planthopper Peregrinus maidis. Mythimna separata larvae, and adults and nymphs of Rhopalosiphum maidis, were apparently unaffected by these chemicals. Some sorghum cvs which were relatively unpalatable to grasshoppers and to P. maidis had low levels of the test chemicals, so that here some other factor or factors must be involved.