Anatomical features of leaves of three cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and settling the plants by cereal leaf beetles, Oulema spp. (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)

Abstract

Investigations of flag leaves anatomy of three winter wheat cultivars: Almari, Gama and Weneda were carried out as it was state that there are great differences in the intensity of cereal leaf beetle feeding on the leaves. In order to determine the features conditioning the differentiated resistance of these cultivars following parameters were measured: the thickness of leaf blade, the length of trichomes and their density in the adaxial epidermis, the number of silicon cells in 1 mm<sup>2</sup> epidermis and the thickness of the external cell walls of epidermis. The observations of cross section of the leaves were made in a light microscope and that of surface of the adaxial epidermis in a scanning electron microscope. In this study it was shown that Gama cv. distinguishes of the shortest trichomes with poor density, the lowest number of the silicon cells in 1 mm<sup>2</sup> and epidermis cells with the thinest walls. This features indicate a poor resistance of Gama cv. against feeding of the pests and give reasons for the presence a much higher number of the cereal leaf beetle larvae (about 100%) than at the extant two cultivars. Dependence between the thickness of leaf blades and the number of larvae of the infesting pests has not been stated.