Impact of Developmental Maturity of Soybean on the Seasonal Abundance of Soybean Aphid (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

• Published in: Environmental entomology 2010-04, Vol.39 (2), p.484-491
• Main Authors: Rhainds, Marc, Yoo, Ho Jung S, Bledsoe, Larry, Sadof, Clifford S, Yaninek, Steve, O'Neil, Robert J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: alternative hosts; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Aphididae; Aphids - physiology; Aphis; Aphis glycines; Autoecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; cultivars; Demecology; developmental stages; dimorphic heteroecy; dispersal behavior; Female; field crops; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glycine max; Glycine max - growth & development; Hemiptera; host maturity; host plants; Indiana; insect behavior; insect development; insect pests; larvae; leaf abscission; maturity groups; migration; nymphs; overwintering; oviposition; pest resistance; plant pests; PLANT-INSECT INTERACTIONS; plant-insect relations; Plants and fungi; Population Density; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Rhamnus; seasonal variation; Seasons; seed development; seed maturation; soybean; soybeans
• ISSN: 0046-225X; 1938-2936
• DOI: 10.1603/EN09034

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), alternates between a primary overwintering host (buckthorn, Rhamnus sp.) and a secondary summer host (soybean, Glycine max). Selection of soybean cultivars with different maturity groups may provide growers with a management tool for A. glycines, either directly through its effect on summer populations that cause economic damage or indirectly through its effect on the production of migrants that disperse to the primary host in fall. This study investigated the abundance and seasonality of A. glycines on soybean cultivars with different maturity rates in central Indiana. The abscission of soybean foliage occurred earlier for early maturing than late maturing cultivars, but no other consistent difference in development or yield was detected among the cultivars tested in this study. The abundance of aphids did not vary consistently among cultivars when soybean was most susceptible to economic damage. A laboratory assay evaluating the larviposition preference of A. glycines alate females, combined with a 7-yr survey documenting the colonization of buckthorn by winged aphids, indicated that the production of gynoparae on soybean began in mid-September and continued until leaf abscission. The abundance of aphids during this period was higher on late maturing cultivars than on early maturing cultivars in both 2006 and 2008, whereas no significant effect was detected in 2007. Altogether, these results suggest that planting early maturing soybean cultivars has little effect on damage by aphids on the current season crop but may reduce the number of fall migrants to the primary host.