Potato plant variety affects the performance and oviposition preference of Phthorimaea operculella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Damage by the potato tuber moth Phthorimaea operculella is one of the major constraints to commercial production of potato in many areas of the world. To promote effective pest management practices for P. operculella based on host plant, larval and adult performance of P. operculella fed on Lishu 6, Hezuo 88, Yunshu 304, and Qingshu 9 potato varieties was compared by examining their survival rate, larval feeding, pupal weight, and oviposition preference.RESULTS: Compared with larvae fed on the other three potato plants, those fed on Lishu 6 exhibited the highest survival rate, with almost 61.67% developing to the adult stage. Females also preferred to lay their eggs on Lishu 6 over Hezuo 88, Yunshu 304 and Qingshu 9; and the weight of P. operculella pupa on Lishu 6 plant (0.0085 g) was significantly heavier than that of on others, especially on Qingshu 9 (0.0062 g). Moreover, first instar larvae fed on Lishu 6 showed host preference to Qingshu 9.CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that Lishu 6 is susceptible to P. operculella, and Qingshu 9 is not relatively susceptible to P. operculella, which suggested that the P. operculella feeding responses to dominant potato varieties in China is different. This variation can be applied for the potato breeding and pest management practice.

Disentangling the Potato Tuber Moth-Induced Early-Defense Response by Simulated Herbivory in Potato Plants

“…PTM and its main host potatoes are both native to South America, and their long-term interaction likely affected the evolution of both species ( Chandel et al, 2020 ). On one hand, PTM has well adapted to solanines and other defense metabolites in potato plants; on the other hand, some potato wild species and cultivars have specific defense machinery against this herbivore ( Musmeci et al, 1997 ; Horgan et al, 2007 ; Mweetwa et al, 2012 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ). However, it remains unclear how potato plants sense the PTM herbivory to tailor their defense against this specialist herbivore, and how potato plants integrate the stimuli coming from different functional components of PTM herbivory.…”

Population growth of Tetranychus truncatus (Acari: Tetranychidae) on different drought-tolerant potato cultivars

“…The population parameters were calculated based on the entire cohort size data (Zhang et al 2022b). There was no statistically significant difference between the two cultivars for population parameters.…”

“…This suggests that resistance of the Holland 15 to T. truncatus may be due to the presence of resistant traits in this cultivar, since it inhibited the population growth of T. truncatus . For example, potato glandular trichomes, starch, and minerals, which could be associated with resistance to leaf sap sucking pests (Zhang et al 2022b). Drought-tolerant plants, in general, could keep relatively higher water content by reducing water loss and enhancing the water uptake ability (Fang and Xiong 2015).…”

Behavioral responses of potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) to volatiles from wilted Yunnan poplar (Populus yunnanensis)

“…Due to the wide use of chemical pesticides, this species has developed various levels of resistance to insecticides such as organic phosphates and pyrethroids. Therefore, an effective and environment‐friendly measure for controlling PTM needs to be developed urgently as the current approaches to control cannot achieve satisfactory results (Rondon, 2010, 2020; Gao, 2018; Zhang et al., 2022).…”