Absence of Genetic Divergence Between Western Corn Rootworms (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Resistant and Susceptible to Control by Crop Rotation

Authors

Nicholas Miller, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
K. S. Kim, USDA-ARS, CICGRU, Genetics Laboratory, Iowa State University
S. T. Ratcliffe, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A. Estoup, UMR INRA-IRD-CIRAD-Agro. M, Campus International de Baillarguet
T. Guillemaud, Centre INRA-UNSA de Sophia Antipolis

ORCID IDs

Nicholas Miller

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Published in Journal of Economic Entomology 99:3 (2006), pp. 685-690.

Abstract

The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is a major pest of corn, Zea mays L., in North America that has recently invaded Europe. A loss of ovipositional fidelity to cornfields has allowed the species to circumvent crop rotation as a means of control in part of its range in the United States. Analyses of variation at eight microsatellite loci provided no evidence for general genetic differentiation between samples of western corn rootworm collected in soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., fields and those collected in cornfields both inside and outside the rotation-resistance problem area. This result suggests that few or no barriers to gene flow exist between rotation-resistant and -susceptible rootworm populations. The implications of this result for the management of western corn rootworm in North America and Europe are discussed.