Welcome to Chinese Journal of Tropical Crops,

Chinese Journal of Tropical Crops ›› 2022, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (12): 2496-2506.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1000-2561.2022.12.012

• Plant Protection & Bio-safety • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evaluating the Adaptation of Spodoptera frugiperda to Various Plants in Corn Field via Artificial Diet Method

LIAO Huimin, GUO Yeshan, HUANG Zian, WANG Peiyue, YE Yuhan, SHU Yinghua(), WANG Jianwu()   

  1. Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment in the Tropics, Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Affairs, South China Agricultural University / Guangdong Provincial Key Agricultural Laboratory of Ecological Circulation / Department of Ecology, College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510642, China
  • Received:2022-02-21 Revised:2022-05-18 Online:2022-12-25 Published:2023-01-12
  • Contact: SHU Yinghua,WANG Jianwu

Abstract:

Understanding the effects of different host plants on the biological characteristics of herbivorous insects is the basis for the study of insect-plant interactions, and is of great significance for effective pest management strategies. The invasive pest, fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda, may damage plants as many as 353 species, but the effects of most host plants on its biological characteristics are still not clear. Feeding the fresh plant leaves to the larvae of herbivorous insects is the common method, but it is limited by climate, geographical location, plant growth cycle and so on. In this study, Zea mays was used as a reference, and 6 crops and weeds in and around corn fields were collected as experimental materials, including Glycine max, Vigna unguiculata, Ipomoea batatas, Artemisia argyi, Lactuca sativa and Cucumis sativus. The fresh leaves of the above plants were uniformly collected and then ground to powder. The powder of different plants was added to the artificial diets at a ratio of 1%, then was used to feed the larvae of S. frugiperda respectively. The survival (i.e., larval survival rate, pupation rate, eclosion rate), growth (i.e., larval gain weight, pupal weight, relative growth rate), development period (i.e., larval period, prepupal period, pupal period), food utilization (i.e., relative consumption rate, approximate digestibility, efficiency of conversion of ingested food, efficiency of conversion of digested food) were investigated to explore the biological characteristics of S. frugiperda after feeding the above diets. In order to verify the feasibility of the plant leaves powder feed method, the fresh leaves of the above plants were also collected uniformly and fed to the larvae of S. frugiperda respectively. The results showed that G. max and V. unguiculata were the suitable host plants for S. frugiperda. While I. batatas, A. argyi and L. sativa presented negative effects on S. frugiperda, which may reduce the harm to corn when the plants were intercropped with corn. With the help of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a quantitative grading index evaluation system was established to compare the two methods quantitatively. As a result, the effects of diets and fresh leaf feeding were consistent, and the plant leaves powder diet method has few restrictions and easy operation, which is better evaluating the effects of farmland plants on the biological characteristics of S. frugiperda.

Key words: insect-plant interaction, ecologically-based pest management, growth and development, Spodoptera frugiperda

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