Genetic Differences in Oviposition Preference Between Two Populations of Heliothis virescens

Abstract

Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), the tobacco budworm, is a multivoltine, polyphagous, highly mobile and economically important insect indigenous to the Americas. A majority of larvae of a given H. virescens population feed on different host plant species in different generations and different geographic locations, apparently depending largely on the local relative abundance of host plants (Table 1). In Mississippi, for example, adults eclose in May from overwintered pupae to oviposit primarily on Geranium dissectum L. and G. carolinianum L. (wild geraniums), Vicia villosa Roth, (winter vetch), and Trifolium resupinatum L. (Persian clover), as well as at least six other apparently less important species (Stadelbacher 1981, Snow and Brazzel 1965). The second through fourth generation larvae are primarily on Gossypium hirsutum L. (cotton) even though four other hosts are acceptable (Snow and Brazzel 1965). Cotton probably does not contribute as significantly as wild hosts to the fifth and final (overwintering) generation due to agricultural defoliation and tillage (Roach and Hopkins 1979; however, see also Laster and Furr 1971). In contrast, in North Carolina, Nicotiana tabacum L. (tobacco) is the major host in each generation although cotton is attacked also. Tobacco is an acceptable host in Mississippi, but very little is grown there (Snow and Brazzel 1965).