Glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca coagulata (Homoptera: Cicadellidae), is a very effective vector of Piece’s disease bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, threatening production of grape and other fruits in California. Long-term management of this disease will rely largely on host plant resistance, which will be aided by a complete understanding of the vector’s feeding behaviors associated with bacterial transmission. EPG (electrical penetration graph) monitoring is a powerful tool to investigate feeding behaviors of sucking insects on plants. Both AC and DC EPG were used for the first time to study recorded feeding behaviors of sharpshooters on Chrysanthemum and grape. The waveforms were categorized into pathway, xylem ingestion and interruption phases, and were correlated and verified with feeding sites on the plant, insect body postures, watery excretory droplets, and histological observation of salivary sheaths within plant tissues.
Species 1: Homoptera Cicadellidae Homalodisca coagulata (glassy-winged sharpshooter)
Keywords: transmission mechanism, Xylella fastidiosa
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