The impact of host plant on biological parameters of Diuraphis noxia

Abstract

Russian wheat aphid, Diuraphis noxia, is one of the economic pests of small grain cereals with worldwide distribution. In current research, susceptibility of D. noxia to a number of host plants including two cultivars of wheat (cv. Shiroodi and Gascogne ) and triticale (cv. Sanabad and Juanillo 92) were evaluated under greenhouse conditions (23 ± 5°C, 60 ± 10% RH and the photoperiod cycle of 16L:8D). The parameters of fertility life table were determined using age-stage two-sex life table theory. The highest developmental time belonged to cv. Sanabad population with a mean value of 11.6 ± 0.21 days and the lowest to cv. Shiroodi population with a mean value of 7.29 ± 0.19 days. The aphids reared on Shiroodi and Juanillo 92 cultivars with mean values of 47.45 ± 2.86 and 12.85 ± 3.13 represented the highest and lowest numbers of offspring, respectively. The intrinsic rate of increase varied from 0.25 female/female/day in aphids reared on cv. Shiroodi to 0.11 ± 0.01 female/female/day in those reared on cv. Juanillo 92. Mean generation time for aphids ranged from 14.2 ± 0.07 days on cv. Shiroodi to 19.99 ± 0.07 days on cv. Juanillo 92. According to the results, Shiroodi and Juanillo 92 cultivars exerted the lowest and highest antibiosis effects on D. noxia population, respectively.