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Student 10-Minute Paper

Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Student Competition

Student

Grad Competition P-IE: IPM - Field Crops 2

(1st Place) Flight potential of Lygus lineolaris transitioning from weedy hosts to mid-Atlantic cotton

Monday, November 6, 2023
8:48 AM – 9:00 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Potomac D
In-Person Student Competition
Lygus lineolaris feeds on a variety of wild and cultivated hosts in North America, and is a key pest of cotton in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US. In the spring, L. lineolaris feeds on weedy hosts with the highest populations found on daisy fleabane, evening primrose and curly dock. Once these weeds senesce in early to mid-summer, L. lineolaris will transition from these hosts to infest cotton. The adaptability of L. lineolaris to make this transition is not well documented and the insect’s flight to disperse and find a new favorable host, such as cotton, has not been studied. To better understand the ability of L. lineolaris to transition to a new host, we investigated population the flight using a flight mill apparatus during 22-hour flight session. Flight was investigated in populations collected from daisy fleabane, evening primrose, and curly dock were measured against a starved control. The variables associated with these sessions include total distance flown, effective time of flight, and time of the longest and shortest bouts. A subsample of each population was assayed to calculate trehalose concentrations via carbohydrate quantification. Trehalose was correlated with calculated flight mill variables, since trehalose acts as the primary energy source for immediate short-term flight in insects. The data from this study will provide information on the potential role of weeds around areas of growing cotton. Ultimately, this could inform growers on identifying fields that may be the most susceptible to transitioning L. lineolaris, based on the distance to weedy patches.