Wednesday, December 13, 2006
D0565

Possibility of environment conscious management of the rice leaffolder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis by endophytic bacteria and mating disruption with synthetic pheromones

Youichi Kobori, koboriy@affrc.go.jp, Yoshito Suzuki, pa8422@affrc.go.jp, and Yukie Sato, satoyuky@affrc.go.jp. National Agricultural Research Center, Insect Pest Management Research Team, 3-1-1 Kannondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Rice leaffolder Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Guenée) is a major pest in many Asian countries. Current management of this pest heavily depends on traditional pesticides because biological and cultural control is ineffective. Endophytic bacteria (Herbaspirillum sp. B65 and Azospirillum sp. B510a) recently found to grant insect pest resistance to infected rice plants are expected to play a role in environment-friendly, sustainable rice leaffolder management. Although insecticidal effects of the endophytes is milder than that of synthetic insecticides, simulation models revealed that deployment of the endophytes in a large special scale would result, within a few years, in the development of a new biotype that is free from the effect of endophyte infection. The use of synthetic pheromones for mating disruption appears another potential technique of rice leaffolder management. However, as is the case for endophyte use, its sole effect is not large enough to maintain the rice leaffolder density below the economic injury level. We investigated with simulation models the dynamics of leaffolder density and biotype gene frequency in a rice producing area where both endophytes and mating disruption technique are employed. The simulation results revealed that durable as well as reliable management of the rice leaffolder can be achieved by the combination of new control measures.


Species 1: Lepidoptera Pyralidae Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (rice leaffolder)