Planting fast-growing trees such as cottonwoods in flood plains offers the unique opportunity to improve the environment and aid in flood containment while providing potential income producing products. On the other hand, the distinctive environment of the flood plain may give rise to potential insect or disease problems. The cottonwood leaf beetle, Chrysomela scripta, is a serious defoliator of plantation-grown Populus in North America and could be a potential problem for cottonwoods grown in flood plains. Insect resistance is highly variable among clones of Populus, and the response of clones to insect defoliators in a flood plain environment in the Midwest is largely unknown. We examined cottonwood leaf beetle herbivory in 10 cottonwood varieties from three different sources. All larval instars and adults preferentially consumed cottonwoods obtained from a commercial source. The least preferred cottonwoods were obtained from Iowa and the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Species 1: Coleoptera Chrysomelidae Chrysomela scripta (cottonwood leaf beetle)
Keywords: Populus, defoliator
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