Insect-plant relationships are commonly studied as relationships that occur between a single insect herbivore species and its host plant. However, insects often end up sharing a plant with one or more other organisms, e.g. insects and/or plant pathogens. We explored the consequences of the Hessian fly and the stem rust pathogen sharing a seedling wheat plant. The survival of each organism was compared on unoccupied plants and plants occupied by the other organism.
Species 1: Diptera Cecidomyiidae Mayetiola destructor (Hessian fly)
Species 2: Uredinales Puccinia graminis
Keywords: plant defense, cross talk
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA