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ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Hard Winter Wheat Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #232760
Title: Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) interactions with barley, rice, and wheat seedlings

Author
item Chen, Ming-Shun
item LIU, XUMING - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item WANG, HAIYAN - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item EL BOUHSSINI, MUSTAPHA - ICARDA

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/3/2009
Publication Date: 8/1/2009
Citation: Chen, M., Liu, X., Wang, H., El Bouhssini, M. 2009. Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor) interactions with barley, rice, and wheat seedlings. Journal of Economic Entomology. 102:1663-1672

Interpretive Summary: The Hessian fly is one of the most destructive insects of wheat world-wide. The insect is also suspected to damage barley in the west coast region of USA. This research discovered that Hessian fly populations collected from wheat fields can survive on barley seedlings, but with high mortality and slow development. We also found that most barley lines responded to Hessian fly attacks with a combination of resistance and tolerance. The evidence we have gathered so far points to the direction that Hessian fly populations from wheat fields may not be able to cause serious damage to barley. Further research is needed on this issue. Also in this research, we found that rice, a nonhost of the Hessian fly, is resistant to the insect with a mechanism that differs from resistance mediated by major genes in wheat.

Technical Abstract: A choice test revealed that Hessian fly adults deposited approximately three times more eggs on wheat seedlings than on barley or rice seedlings. On a barley seedling, 49.4% of eggs were deposited on either the abaxial leaf-surface or the coleoptile and first leaf-sheath (C&FLS), where newly hatched larvae will die due to their inability to migrate into the inter-space between leaf-sheaths. In comparison, only 14% of eggs were deposited on the abaxial leaf-surface or C&FLS on a wheat seedling. The average death rate of Hessian fly larvae in seedlings of an apparently susceptible barley line was 60%, compared with only 10% in seedlings of a susceptible wheat cultivar. The development of Hessian fly larvae was also much slower in barley seedlings than in wheat seedlings. It took 12 days for Hessian fly larvae to finish the 1st and 2nd instars in susceptible barley seedlings, compared with 10 days in susceptible wheat seedlings under the same conditions. These results indicated that barley is not a good host for the Hessian fly. Our results also confirmed that rice is a nonhost for the Hessian fly. The resistance mechanism in rice was different from that in R gene resistant wheat. Hessian fly larvae grew a little and died more slowly in rice seedlings, whereas Hessian fly larvae died quickly without growth in resistant wheat.