Resistance in Bermudagrass Affecting Control of the Fall Armyworm12

Abstract

A clone of bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. (P.I. 289931, Georgia accession no. 239), was found to have resistance to the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), and to the two-lined spittlebug, Prosapia bicincta (Say) (Leuck et al. 1968, Stimmann and Taliaferro 1969, Taliaferro et al. 1969). Both insects are important economic pests of some varieties of bermudagrass, especially C. dactylon cv. ‘Coastal’. Resistance to the fall armyworm was determined to be nonpreference when larvae were given a choice of food hosts. In other work (Leuck 1970, Leuck and Skinner 1971), the effect of such resistance on the fall annyworm confined to feed only on some nonpreferred hosts has been to reduce significantly the percentages of emerging adults. Since such an effect could be meaningful in population control of the fall armyworm, we examined the effect on the fall annyworm from confined feeding on foliage of bermudagrass clone no. 239.