Multiple decrement life tables of Cephus cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) across a set of barley cultivars: The importance of plant defense versus cannibalism.

ABSTRACT: Accurately estimating cause-specific mortality for immature insect herbivores is usually difficult. The insects are exposed to abiotic and biotic mortality factors, causing cadavers to simply disappear before cause of mortality can be recorded. Also, insect herbivores are often highly mobile on hosts, making it difficult to follow patterns for individuals through time. In contrast, the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, spends its entire egg, larval, and pupal period inside a host stem. Therefore, with periodic sampling stage-specific causes of mortality can be ascertained. Consequently, we examined C. cinctus mortality in eight barley, Hordeum vulgare L., cultivars in two locations in Montana from 2016 to 2018 by collecting stem samples from stem elongation to crop maturity at week

SUBMITTER: Achhami BB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7485797 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature