Author
QURESHI, JAWWAD - KANSAS STATE UNIV | |
BUSCHMAN, LAWRENT - KANSAS STATE UNIV | |
Throne, James | |
RAMASWAMY, SONNY - KANSAS STATE UNIV |
Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 1/13/2004 Publication Date: 6/15/2004 Citation: Qureshi, J.A., Buschman, L.L., Throne, J.E., Ramaswamy, S.B. 2004. Oil-soluble dyes incorporated in meridic diet of diatraea grandiosella (lepidoptera: crambidae) as markers for adult dispersal studies. Journal of Economic Entomology 97(3):836-845. Interpretive Summary: The southwestern corn borer is an important pest of corn in the U.S., and transgenic BT-corn hybrids are now used for control of this pest. Attempts are being made to minimize the potential for development of insect resistance to the corn hybrids, and studies on dispersal of southwestern corn borers will aid in developing resistance management strategies. Dispersal studies usually are conducted by marking, releasing, and recapturing insects, but no methods are currently available for marking southwestern corn borers. We determined that two oil-soluble dyes could be used to mark southwestern corn borers, and that the dyes had little effect on biological parameters of the insects. The insects retained the dyes for their entire life span, but their progeny lost the marker after three to four days. The two dyes should be suitable for dispersal studies on southwestern corn borers, which should aid in making resistance management decisions. Technical Abstract: Mark-release-recapture experiments to study insect dispersal require the release of marked insects that can be easily identified among feral conspecifics. Oil soluble dyes have been used successfully to mark various insect species. Two oil soluble dyes, Sudan Red 7B and Sudan Blue 670 (Solvent Blue 35), were added to diet for the southwestern corn borer, Diatraea grandiosella (Dyar), and evaluated against an untreated control diet. Survival, diet consumption, larval and pupal weight, development time, fecundity, longevity, and dry weight of the adults were measured. Adults reared on the three diets were also tested for mating success. Some minor effects were observed for southwestern corn borers reared on the marked diets. Eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults were all reliably marked and readily identifiable, and adults retained color for their entire life span. Adults from each diet mated successfully with adults from the other diets. F1 progeny from the different mating combinations survived to the second instar, but tended to lose the marker after 3-4 d on untreated diet. Both Sudan Red 7B and Sudan Blue 670 can be used to mark southwestern corn borer adults and thus should be useful for mark-release-recapture dispersal studies. However, the dyes will only be useful for short-term studies on larval progeny of marked adults. |