Antibiosis in small grain cereals against the rose-grain aphid, Metopolophium dirhodum (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Abstract

Resistance against aphids is an integrated pest management tactic that enhances the economic and environmental sustainability of cereal production. The aim of our study was to assess the degree of antibiosis against Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), one of the most important cereal aphids in temperate regions, in two lines of small grain cereals bred in the Crop Research Institute (CRI) of Prague: spring wheat, Triticum aestivum L. cv. ‘Rufia’, and germplasm of durum wheat, Triticum turgidum ssp. durum (Desf.) van Slageren ‘TTD40363’, under controlled laboratory conditions. Resistant spring wheat cultivar (‘Libertina’) and highly susceptible spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. ‘Sebastian’) were used for reference. The responses of M. dirhodum to each line and population growth projections were determined according to the age-stage, two-sex life table theory. We found that Rufia was susceptible and TTD40363 was rather resistant to M. dirhodum. The projected population sizes after 35 days were ~ 41,000 individuals in spring wheat Rufia and ~ 12,000 in durum wheat TTD40363, which is within the range delimited by the reference cultivars (4,000 in the highly resistant spring wheat Libertina and 77,500 in highly susceptible spring barley Sebastian). This study provides new data on small grain cereal resistance to aphids. An age-stage, two-sex life table approach was used to assess resistance to aphids on durum wheat and barley for the first time.