VIEW ARTICLE

Vector Relations

Transmission of Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus by Chrysomelid Beetles. L. R. Nault, Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, OH 44691; W. E. Styer(2), M. E. Coffey(3), D. T. Gordon(4), L. S. Negi(5), and C. L. Niblett(6). (2)(3)Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, OH 44691; (4)(5)Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, OH 44691; (6)Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. Phytopathology 68:1071-1074. Accepted for publication 24 January 1978. Copyright © 1978 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-68-1071.

Maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) is transmitted by six species of beetles belonging to the family Chrysomelidae: the cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopa), the corn flea beetle (Chaetocnema pulicaria), the flea beetle (Systena frontalis), the southern corn rootworm (Diabrotica undecimpunctata), the northern corn rootworm (D. longicornis), and the western corn rootworm (D. virgifera). Both larvae and adults of O. melanopa are vectors; adults transmit virus for 6 days after acquisition. Crushed adult D. virgifera collected from infected fields in Kansas reacted positively with MCMV antiserum. Two other insects with mandibulate mouth parts, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) and larvae of the black cutworm (Agrotis ipsilon), failed to transmit MCMV as did three aphid species, and a leafhopper, a planthopper, and a whitefly species.