Correlation of an Electrical Penetration Graph Waveform with Walking by Asian Citrus Psyllid,Diaphorina citri(Hemiptera: Psyllidae)

Abstract

Electrical penetration graph (EPG) monitoring of insect feeding is a rigorous means of observing and quantifying the otherwise invisible feeding of piercing-sucking arthropods (Walker 2000). EPG is being used to study how the feeding behavior of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) (Diaphorina citri Kuwayama) changes in response to insecticide residues (Serikawa et al. 2010; Serikawa et al. in press), in an effort to improve the efficacy of wide spread insecticide treatments against this insect in Florida citrus. ACP is the vector of the putative causal agent of Huanglongbing (HLB) disease, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, the cause of millions of dollars in damage to the citrus indus try in Florida (Muraro & Morris 2009). The pri mary means of disease management at this time is insecticide treatment of vectors; however, it is presently unknown whether insecticides prevent performance of the feeding behaviors of ACP re quired for pathogen transmission. Coarse-scale EPG waveforms for ACP have been defined via standard EPG correlation meth