Agronomy and Horticulture Department
Date of this Version
8-1968
Abstract
Akeson et al. (1967) reported that the water-methanol phase of a water-methanol-chloroform extract, obtained from leaves of Melilotus officinalis L. Lam. (variety Goldtop), stimulated extensive feeding by the sweetclover weevil, Sitona cylindricollis (Fähreus), on bioassay disks prepared from sweetclover roots. Subsequent studies have shown that a hot-water extract will elicit a similar response. When disks were treated only with the solvent used in extraction, an almost negligible amount of feeding was obtained. Thus, leaves of Goldtop sweetclover apparently contain one or more water-soluble feeding stimulants. Beck (1965) defined a feeding stimulant as a a stimulus tending to promote continuous feeding. The present paper describes the feeding stimulant from a hot-water extract of Goldtop sweetclover leaves.
Comments
Published in the Journal of Economic Entomology (August 1968) 61: 1,111-1,112.