Feeding Preferences and Consumption Rates of Stalk Borer (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Larvae Using Plants Found in No-Till Corn

Abstract

In feeding preference tests using either leaf disks or stem sections, higher numbers of stalk borer (SB), Papaipema nehris (Guenee), fed on grasses than on broadleaf plants. Cool-season perennial grasses, such as orchard grass or fescue, were preferred. Feeding preferences did not exhibit a sharp demarcation between acceptable and unacceptable hosts. Degrees of preference were observed as a graded continuum between highly acceptable to less acceptable host plants. A higher percentage of individuals (65.5) chose to wander and did not feed on leaf disks, as compared with the percentage that chose to wander (48.2) when presented stem sections. In no-choice feeding tests on plants in the laboratory, first-instar SB infested plants at the same rate that they damaged plants, showing a tendency to tunnel into acceptable host plants. Annual rye sustained the greatest amount of damage (74%) and had the highest percentage (27) infestation. Using third- or fourth-instar SB in no-choice field cage studies, infestation levels were greatest for orchard grass and annual rye. Damage levels were lowest for red clover and cheat. Larvae recovered from field corn showed preferences for feeding on field corn, as compared with sorghum, orchard grass, and alfalfa.