Abstract
Plant allelochemicals are a group of secondary metabolites produced by plants to defend against herbivore. The mortality of two plant allelochemicals (tannic acid and gossypol) on the cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae), were investigated using feeding assays and the sublethal effects were evaluated using the age-stage, two-sex life table approach. Tannic acid and gossypol have deleterious effects on A. gossypii, and as the concentrations increased, the mortality of cotton aphid increased. The life history traits of A. gossypii including the developmental duration of each nymph stage, the longevity, oviposition days, total preadult survival rate and adult pre-oviposition period were not significantly affected by sublethal concentration of tannic acid (20 mg/L) and gossypol (50 mg/L), while the population parameters (r, λ and R0) were significantly affected by these two plant allelochemicals. Furthermore, tannic acid can increase the pre-adult duration time and TPOP but reduce the fecundity of A. gossypii significantly compared to the control and gossypol treatment groups. These results are helpful for comprehensively understanding the effects of plant allelochemicals on A. gossypii.
Highlights
Plant allelochemicals, sometimes called secondary plant compounds because they are produced as by-products of intermediary metabolism by plant, which may play important roles in defense against insect herbivore [1,2,3]
Acute toxicity of tannic acid and gossypol against the adult cotton aphids was determined via the liquid artificial diet incorporation method
Bioassays to examine sublethal effects of tannic acid and gossypol exposure were conducted at a LC25 value of 20 mg/L tannic acid and 50 mg/L gossypol in the artificial diet for 24 h
Summary
Sometimes called secondary plant compounds because they are produced as by-products of intermediary metabolism by plant, which may play important roles in defense against insect herbivore [1,2,3]. Many kinds of plant allelochemicals were deleterious to herbivorous insects [4,5,6,7]. Isoflavonoids isolated from Cicer arietinum can affect the development of Helicoverpa armigera larvae [8]. Golawska et al found that naringenin and quercetin have detrimental effects on the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum Harris [4]. Zhang et al found that the development of H. armigera was retarded significantly when the 6th instar larvae fed on a sublethal dosage of 2-tridecanone [9].
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