Occurrence of the new invasive insect Contarinia nasturtii (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on cruciferous weeds.

Contarinia nasturtii (Kieffer) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a common insect pest in Europe and a new invasive pest in North America, causes severe damage to cruciferous crops. In the United States, C. nasturtii was first reported in western New York in 2004. From 2005 to 2007, field surveys were conducted in western New York to investigate the occurrence of C. nasturtii in weeds that might serve as a reservoir for this pest. The results indicate that 12 cruciferous weed species were found in and around commercial vegetable crucifer plantings, and C. nasturtii emergence was detected from most of them. The number of C. nasturtii that emerged from the weeds was low and varied by species, year, and the timing of sampling. Peak emergence from weeds in fallow fields occurred in June. Nonchoice tests in the laboratory showed that significantly fewer larvae were found on cruciferous weeds than on cauliflower plants, although C. nasturtii could lay eggs on the weeds. When weeds and cauliflower plants were simultaneously exposed to C. nasturtii adults for egg laying (choice tests), 97.3% of the C. nasturtii larvae were found on the cauliflower plants 8 d after oviposition, 2.7% on Sinapis arvensis L., and none on the other five weed species tested. Our results suggest that cruciferous weeds can serve as alternative host plants of C. nasturtii but are less suitable than cauliflower. A method of detecting C. nasturtii on weeds and control of C. nasturtii through weed management are discussed.

Inheritance of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac toxin in a greenhouse-derived strain of cabbage looper (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae).

A population of cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner), collected from commercial greenhouses in the lower mainland of British Columbia, Canada, in 2001 showed a resistance level of 24-fold to Dipel, a product of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) subspecies kurstaki. This population was selected with Cry1Ac, the major Bt Cry toxin in Dipel, to obtain a homogenous population resistant to Cry1Ac. The resulting strain of T. ni, named GLEN-Cry1Ac, was highly resistant to Cry1Ac with a resistance ratio of approximately 1000-fold. The larvae from the GLEN-Cry1Ac strain could survive on Cry1Ac-expressing transgenic broccoli plants that were highly insecticidal to T. ni and diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.). The inheritance of Cry1Ac resistance in this T. ni strain was autosomal and incompletely recessive. The degree of dominance of the resistance was -0.402 and -0.395, respectively, for the neonates in reciprocal crosses between the GLEN-Cry1Ac and a laboratory strain of T. ni. Using chi2 goodness-of-fit test, we demonstrated that the inhibition of larval growth resulting from testing 12 toxin doses in the progeny of the backcross fit the predicted larval responses based on a monogenic inheritance model. Therefore, we conclude that the inheritance of the resistance to Cry1Ac in the T. ni larvae is monogenic.

Seasonal changes in Thrips tabaci population structure in two cultivated hosts.

Thrips tabaci is a major pest of high-value vegetable crops and understanding its population genetics will advance our knowledge about its ecology and management. Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequence was used as a molecular marker to analyze T. tabaci populations from onion and cabbage fields in New York. Eight COI haplotypes were identified in 565 T. tabaci individuals collected from these fields. All T. tabaci were thelytokous and genetically similar to those originating from hosts representing seven plant families spanning five continents. The most dominant haplotype was NY-HT1, accounting for 92 and 88% of the total individuals collected from onion fields in mid-summer in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and 100 and 96% of the total in early fall in 2005 and 2007, respectively. In contrast, T. tabaci collected from cabbage fields showed a dynamic change in population structure from mid-summer to early fall. In mid-summer, haplotype NY-HT2 was highly abundant, accounting for 58 and 52% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively, but in early fall it decreased drastically to 15 and 7% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Haplotype NY-HT1 accounted for 12 and 46% of the total in cabbage fields in mid-summer of 2005 and 2007, respectively, but became the dominant haplotype in early fall accounting for 81 and 66% of the total in 2005 and 2007, respectively. Despite the relative proximity of onion and cabbage fields in the western New York landscape, T. tabaci populations differed seasonally within each cropping system. Differences may have been attributed to better establishment of certain genotypes on specific hosts or differing colonization patterns within these cropping systems. Future studies investigating temporal changes in T. tabaci populations on their major hosts in these ecosystems are needed to better understand host-plant utilization and implications for population management.