Lepidoptera (Crambidae, Noctuidae, and Pyralidae) Injury to Corn Containing Single and Pyramided Bt Traits, and Blended or Block Refuge, in the Southern United States.

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae); corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea Boddie (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae); southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella Dyar (Lepidoptera: Crambidae); sugarcane borer, Diatraea saccharalis F. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae); and lesser cornstalk borer, Elasmopalpus lignosellus Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), are lepidopteran pests of corn, Zea mays L., in the southern United States. Blended refuge for transgenic plants expressing the insecticidal protein derivative from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has recently been approved as an alternative resistance management strategy in the northern United States. We conducted a two-year study with 39 experiments across 12 states in the southern United States to evaluate plant injury from these five species of Lepidoptera to corn expressing Cry1F and Cry1Ab, as both single and pyramided traits, a pyramid of Cry1Ab×Vip3Aa20, and a pyramid of Cry1F×Cry1Ab plus non-Bt in a blended refuge. Leaf injury and kernel damage from corn earworm and fall armyworm, and stalking tunneling by southwestern corn borer, were similar in Cry1F×Cry1Ab plants compared with the Cry1F×Cry1Ab plus non-Bt blended refuge averaged across five-plant clusters. When measured on an individual plant basis, leaf injury, kernel damage, stalk tunneling (southwestern corn borer), and dead or injured plants (lesser cornstalk borer) were greater in the blended non-Bt refuge plants compared to Cry1F×Cry1Ab plants in the non-Bt and pyramided Cry1F×Cry1Ab blended refuge treatment. When non-Bt blended refuge plants were compared to a structured refuge of non-Bt plants, no significant difference was detected in leaf injury, kernel damage, or stalk tunneling (southwestern corn borer). Plant stands in the non-Bt and pyramided Cry1F×Cry1Ab blended refuge treatment had more stalk tunneling from sugarcane borer and plant death from lesser cornstalk borer compared to a pyramided Cry1F×Cry1Ab structured refuge treatment. Hybrid plants containing Cry1F×Cry1Ab within the pyramided Cry1F×Cry1Ab blended refuge treatment had significantly less kernel damage than non-Bt structured refuge treatments. Both single and pyramided Bt traits were effective against southwestern corn borer, sugarcane borer, and lesser cornstalk borer.

A technique using reusable components for hand-infesting cornstalks with European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) larvae.

Field trials were conducted in 2005 and 2006 to evaluate the use of reusable wire nuts and nonreusable gelatin capsules for hand-infesting cornstalks with European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner), (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) larvae. The reusable technique, which consists of a modified WingGard plastic wire connector (i.e., wire nut) as a containment device for larvae, was compared over three plant growth stages to a gelatin capsule technique. In 2005 and 2006, the wire nut technique resulted in significantly higher number of wire nuts still intact (i.e., undamaged, with or without a larva) on the stalk at 72 h after infestation compared with the gelatin capsule technique. In addition, the wire nut technique resulted in significantly higher number of tunnels per stalk compared with the gelatin capsule technique at all three corn growth stages during both years. In 2005, the mean +/- SEM number of tunnels per stalk was 0.53 +/- 0.03 in the wire nut technique compared with 0.13 +/- 0.03 tunnels per stalk in the gelatin capsule technique. In 2006, the mean number of tunnels per stalk was 0.45 +/- 0.03 in the wire nut technique compared with 0.08 +/- 0.02 tunnels per stalk in the gelatin capsule technique. In addition, the relative net precision in the wire-nut technique was approximately 2 times higher compared with the gelatin capsule technique.

European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) stalk tunneling on root-knot nematode (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae) fitness on corn.

Greenhouse experiments were conducted in 2004-2006 to examine the reciprocal effects of aboveground herbivory by European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), and belowground herbivory by root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita Chitwood (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae), on one another at three corn, Zea mays L., growth stages. Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of aboveground herbivory by O. nubilalis on the number of M. incognita juvenile penetration/root system and eggs/root system. In the first experiment, the O. nubilalis infestation level by plant growth stage main effect interaction was not significant for either M. incognita juvenile penetration or eggs. The overall effect of stalk tunneling by O. nubilalis resulted in 48.9% fewer juvenile penetration and 40.0% fewer eggs than in the respective controls. In the second experiment, the main effects interaction was significant for juvenile penetration (P = 0.0422) and eggs (P = 0.0134). At the eight- and 10-leaf growth stages, the combined effect of one and three O. nubilalis larvae per plant resulted in 41.2 and 44.7% significantly fewer juvenile penetration than in the respective controls. Similarly, the combined effect of stalk tunneling (with the exception of one larvae per plant at the 10-leaf growth stage) at the six-, eight-, and 10-leaf growth stages resulted in 46.3, 53.3, and 55.2% fewer eggs than in the respective controls. In all instances, M. incognita juvenile penetration and eggs were significantly negatively correlated with O. nubilalis tunnel length. In a reciprocal experiment conducted two times, no significant (P > 0.05) effect of M. incognita inoculation level on stalk tunneling was found in either experiment.

European corn borer (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) infestation level and plant growth stage on whole-plant corn yield grown for silage in Virginia.

Field experiments were conducted in 2004 and 2005 to determine the effect of different levels of hand-infested third instar European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hiibner) (Lepidoptera: Crambidae), on whole-plant yield and plant growth stage in corn, Zea mays L., grown for silage. In 2004 and 2005, European corn borer infestation level had a significant negative impact on whole-plant yield (grams of dry matter per plant) with increasing infestation; however, whole-plant yield was not significantly affected by plant growth stage in either year. In 2004, the six larvae per plant treatment caused the greatest percentage of reduction (23.4%) in mean (+/-SEM) whole-plant yield (258.5 +/- 21.0 g dry matter per plant) compared with the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) CrylAb control (337.3 +/- 11.1 g dry matter per plant). In 2005, the five larvae per plant treatment caused the greatest percentage of reduction (8.3%) in mean whole-plant yield (282.3 +/- 10.8 g dry matter per plant) compared with the Bt CrylAb control (307.8 +/- 8.3 g dry matter per plant). The relationship between mean whole-plant yield and European corn borer larvae infestation level from the pooled data of both years was described well by using an exponential decay model (r2 = 0.84, P = 0.0038). The economic injury level for silage corn was estimated to be approximately 73% higher than for corn grown for grain based on similar control costs and crop values. In addition, plant growth stage and European corn borer infestation level had no effect on percentage of acid detergent fiber, neutral detergent fiber, and crude protein values in either year of the study.

Characterization of chemicals mediating ovipositional host-plant finding byAmyelois transitella females.

Ovipositional host-finding in the navel orangeworm,Amyelois transitella (Walker), is brought about by an in-flight response to host odors. Wind-tunnel studies of the response of gravid females to almonds showed that this response is mediated primarily by long-chain fatty acids, particularly oleic acid and linoleic acid. Evidence for the behavioral activity of fatty acids is based on the fact that: (1) behavioral activity of almond oil was concentrated in a single liquid chromatographic fraction whose composition was predominantly long-chain fatty acids, (2) behavioral activity was lost when either almond oil or the active fraction of that oil was treated with diazomethane, (3) full activity was elicited by a selective extraction of free fatty acids from crude almond oil, and (4) upwind response by females was elicited by a blend of synthetic oleic and linoleic acids, albeit at a level less than that elicited by almond oil. Five fatty acids identified from the almond oil were: myristic acid (1%), palmitic acid (16%), stearic acid (3%), oleic acid (58%), and linoleic (22%). Attraction to various combinations of synthetic acids was observed only when oleic acid was present, and oleic acid elicited upwind flights to the source when presented alone; however, short-range responses were enhanced by the addition of linoleic acid, which elicited no long-range orientation by itself. Despite significant levels of attraction to synthetic blends, the percentage of females flying to the source was lower than that flying to acidulated almond oil, the best natural attractant tested. Thus, although longrange response may be mediated primarily by a blend of oleic and linoleic acids, additional and as yet unidentified components must also play an important role. Long-range chemically modulated host finding in this and other generalist plant feeders is discussed with respect to current models of the evolution of host finding, and it is argued that suggestions that long-range host finding should be correlated with narrowness of host utilization are logically flawed and are not supported by our current understanding of specific examples of host finding.