科研之友
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摘要
The rice leaf folder, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), occurs throughout southeast and northeast Asia, and has a broad host range including graminaceous crops and weeds. Unraveling the relationship between adult oviposition preference and offspring performance is central to understanding the evolution of plant-insect interactions. In the present study, we examined oviposition behavior and larval performance of the C. medinalis on rice plants and non-rice graminaceous plants. Using choice oviposition experiments, female C. medinalis moths preferred rice volatiles, and laid significantly more eggs on the leaves of rice plants than non-rice graminaceous plants. Larval performance, as assayed by host plant selection rate, and host suitability, were evaluated by using multi-choice experiments and life-table analysis, respectively. Larval host selection experiments showed that the younger C. medinalis larvae (1st and 2nd instar) exhibited a stronger ability to identify rice hosts compared to non-rice graminaceous plants than older larvae (3rd to 5th instar). The results of life-table studies showed that C. medinalis developed and grew faster on rice plants than on non-rice graminaceous plants. In particular, the graminaceous crop, sugarcane Saccharum officinarum, and graminaceous weeds Miscanthus sinensis and Setaria viridis, prevented the development and ovipositing of C. medinalis. Our results showed the strong preference that C. medinalis adults had to oviposit and larvae had to develop on rice and this was highly consistent within the population tested. This indicated that oviposition preference of female C. medinalis moths might play an important role in larval host identification between rice plants and non-rice graminaceous plants.
