Feeding behaviour of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera adults on corn crops

Abstract

Diabrotica virgifera virgifera Le Conte (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae), is an invasive pest in corn crops, known as western corn rootworm. For this, serious measures were taken to limit the spread; however it continued to expand and adapt to new areas. One of the causes responsible for invading is capacity of adapting to abiotic and biotic factors in the new habitat. Having in mind the orientation for adults and especially for flowering plants pollen we wanted to see if behavior of Diabrotica from a corn crop, at a time, is influenced by the presence and diversity of weeds. Observations were made during year of 2014, in July and August, in a place in western Romania. It was chased feeding behavior toward both corn plant and weed and the other hand, the level of population was observed. In our study we found that adults are attracted to flowers weeds; they found on much greater numbers in corn plot with weed abundant comparative the plot without weeds. Females predominated in corn crop with different weed species present.