Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection
Project Number: 8080-21000-032-003-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 15, 2018
End Date: Sep 14, 2023
Objective:
The objectives for this project will be: 1) identify the risk posed by the Spotted Lantern Fly (SLF) to fruit trees and vines; 2) assess host plant suitability for SLF development and survivorship; 3) develop a sustainable SLF colony; and 4) develop novel trap types for SLF biosurveillance.
Approach:
Objective 1: The effect of different densities of SLF feeding on young cultivated fruit trees and vines, and forest trees common to orchard and vineyard borders will be evaluated in the laboratory. Egg masses will be collected in situ from the quarantine zone in Pennsylvania and transported to the laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Masses will be monitored daily for hatch. Those with >50% hatch rate will be assigned to a diet treatment. SLF will be introduced to young (< 3-year-old) potted tree-of-heaven, black walnut, maple, oak, black locust, sassafras, black cherry, common hackberry, grape vines, peach and/or apple trees as first instar nymphs, allowing them to develop through to adults (with insect replacement to maintain target load density numbers), or as adults. Four densities of insect feeding will be evaluated in terms of SLF per tree: 0, 5, 10, 40/tree. A minimum of five replicates per treatment and life stage (adults and nymphs) will be conducted.
Objective 2: The effect of different densities of SLF feeding on young cultivated and forest trees will be evaluated in the laboratory. Egg masses will be collected in situ from the quarantine zone in Pennsylvania and transported to the laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Masses will be monitored daily for hatch. Those with >50% hatch rate will be assigned to a diet treatment. SLF will be introduced to young (< 3-year-old) potted tree-of-heaven, black walnut, maple, oak, black locust, sassafras, black cherry, common hackberry, peach and/or apple trees as first instar nymphs, allowing them to develop through to adults (with insect replacement to maintain target load density numbers), or as adults. Four densities of insect feeding will be evaluated in terms of SLF per tree: 0, 5, 10, 40/tree. A minimum of five replicates per treatment and life stage (adults and nymphs) will be conducted.
Objective 3: Host plants will be grown in greenhouses and growth chambers to ensure fresh plant material is available for SLF nymphs and adults. Nymphs and adults will be collected in the wild and held at abiotic conditions necessary to promote feeding and development (likely 14L:10D, 25ºC) and with mixed host fresh plant material (likely including tree of heaven, grape and black walnut stems and foliage). Following molting to the adult stage and several weeks of feeding, adults will then be held at 14L:10D or 12L:12D at 15, 20 or 25ºC to determine the abiotic conditions that best promote mating and oviposition. Egg masses deposited in the laboratory or collected in the wild will then be held at 25ºC 14L:10D to determine if eggs will begin to develop immediately or must undergo an obligatory diapause, respectively. Finally, growth regulators such as pyriproxyfen will be evaluated to determine if any sort of obligatory diapause can be disrupted as has been done for other insects.
Objective 4: Novel trap designs relevant for SLF nymphal and adult behavior will be built and deployed in areas where SLF is present. Attractants identified by APHIS personnel and land grant university collaborators also will be evaluated in these trials.
