Entomology, Department of
Date of this Version
August 1982
Abstract
Host range of the southern corn billbug, (SCB), Sphenophorus callosus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), was tested with 14 crop and weed species by artificially infesting plants with SCB adults and eggs; field observations were also made. Of 14 species tested, only corn, Zea mays L., and yellow nutsedge, Cyperus esculentus L., allowed completion of larval development, although adults fed on a wider variety of plants. Scirpus cyperinusI, (L.) Kunth (Cyperaceae) was found to be a new SCB larval host from field observations. Overwintered SCB adults were fed sections of greenhouse-grown corn and four weed species in the laboratory. Survival was highest on corn and yellow nutsedge and lowest on common larnbsquarters, Chenopodium album L. SCB were able to produce mature eggs only if fed either corn or yellow nutsedge.
Comments
Published in Environmental Entomology Volume 11 Issue 4 (August 1982), pp. 954 – 957. © 1982 Entomological Society of America. Used by permission.