Food plant preference of the cabbage moth, Mamestra brassicae (L.)
Metspalu, L.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Plant Protection)E-mail:[email protected] | Jogar, K.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Plant Protection) | Hiiesaar, K.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Plant Protection) | Grisheakova, M.(Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Plant Protection)
The aim of the present study was to elucidate plants preferred by cabbage moth, Mamestra brassicae larvae and the dynamics of their numbers on these plants. The experiment included white cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. alba), rutabaga (swede) (B. napus var. napobrassica), collard (ornamental kale) (B. oleracea var. acephala), red cabbage (B. oleracea var. capitata f. rubra), and nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus). Our experiments revealed that cabbage moth larvae had feeding preferences within the same Brassica family. The M. brassicae preferred white cabbage: 51.2% of larvae counted during the observation period were gathered from this plant. The next choices were collard, by 32.1%, and red cabbage, by 16.5%. On rutabaga only few larvae of M. brassicae were found. No M. brassicae were discovered on nasturtium. White cabbage had the biggest number of larvae at the end of July; thereafter their numbers decreased, and in mid-August only single larvae were found there. Red cabbage had larvae only during the first two analyses; later samples did not show any larvae. Collard had a relatively small number of larvae during the first two observations, after that their number started to increase, reaching its peak in the fourth week of the observations. Thereafter the numbers decreased until by mid-August none remained.
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