Effects of Western Corn Rootworm Larval Feeding, Drought, and Their
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Effects of western corn rootworm larval feeding, drought, and their interaction on maize performance and rootworm development A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctorate of Philosophy By Mervat Ahmed Badawy Mahmoud Bruce E. Hibbard and Robert E. Sharp, Dissertation Supervisors December 2015 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled EFFECTS OF WESTERN CORN ROOTWORM LARVAL FEEDING, DROUGHT, AND THEIR INTERACTION ON MAIZE PERFORMANCE AND ROOTWORM DEVELOPMENT Presented by Mervat Ahmed Badawy Mahmoud a candidate for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. Robert E. Sharp Dr. Bruce E. Hibbard Dr. Deborah L. Finke Dr. Melvin J. Oliver Dr. Mark R. Ellersieck DEDICATION To my father: Ahmad Badawy (RIP) To my mother: Rasmia Mahdy (Allah Bless Her) To my brothers: Rafik, Emad, Kamal To my sisters: Ahlam, Fadia, Faten, Azza To my 19 (so far) nieces and nephews You are my support system. I would never be who I am today without you being in my life. No words can express my Love, Respect, and Appreciation ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I am Grateful to Allah for allowing me to complete this dissertation. I would like to express my deepest appreciations to my primary academic advisor Dr. Bruce Hibbard for his support and constant encouragement. His keen interest in my project made everything easy and possible. I would like to thank my co-advisor Dr. Robert Sharp for his gracious guidance and support. I would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Deborah Finke for her helpful advice and willingness to help. I would also like to thank Dr. Melvin Oliver for his encouragement through my research and Dr. Mark Ellersieck insightful help with my statistical analysis problems for all of my experiments. I would like to thank all of them for their assistance in achieving my goal. My research would not have been possible without the vigorous efforts of everyone in my lab, past and present. I would especially like to thank Dr. Sarah Zukoff for her exceptional help in and out of the lab. She was and still is more than a sister to me. I would like to thank Drs. Daniel Frank, Ivan Hiltpold, and Lisa Meihls for taking the time out of their busy postdoctoral research to answer my questions and help me in my writing, and Ryan Geisert for his help in the field. I thank Anthony Zukoff, Julie Barry, and Tim Praiswater for the many things they have helped me with in the field and the lab. Thanks to my fellow graduate students and the entire Entomology faculty for being very supportive. Special thanks to my friends Fatama, Zienab, Marwa, Margo and Ferial for being always there for me. Thanks to the faculties and the staff at the department of Zoology and Entomology at South Valley University, Egypt for their continuous support. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support and prayers which were my shield against the hardship for being away from them. Thank you all! ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ ii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW .................................... 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Western Corn Rootworm Life History ............................................................................ 3 Western Corn Rootworm Larval Establishment and Movement .................................... 5 Western Corn Rootworm Host Location ......................................................................... 5 Western Corn Rootworm Feeding Behavior ................................................................... 8 Plant Response to Drought .............................................................................................. 9 Physiological Traits ..................................................................................................... 9 Maize Growth ............................................................................................................ 11 Plant Response to Western Corn Rootworm Feeding ................................................... 13 Physiological traits .................................................................................................... 13 Maize growth ............................................................................................................. 14 Drought Effect on Plant-Insect Interactions .................................................................. 15 Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 17 References ..................................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER II: THE EFFECT OF WESTERN CORN ROOTWORM AND WATER DEFICITS ON MAIZE PERFORMANCE UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS .. 32 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 32 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................. 36 Growing conditions ................................................................................................... 37 Western corn rootworm infestation ........................................................................... 37 Soil moisture regimes ................................................................................................ 40 Measurements................................................................................................................ 41 Leaf water potential. .................................................................................................. 41 iii Stomatal conductance. ............................................................................................... 41 Shoot air-dried weight ............................................................................................... 42 Root damage rating. ................................................................................................... 42 Root air-dried weight. ................................................................................................ 42 Larval recovery .......................................................................................................... 43 Head capsule width and larval dry weight. ................................................................ 43 Statistical analysis: .................................................................................................... 43 Results ........................................................................................................................... 45 Experiment 1: Neonate larvae ................................................................................... 45 Experiment 2: 2nd instar larvae .................................................................................. 47 Experiment 3: Eggs and delayed drought .................................................................. 50 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 51 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 56 References ..................................................................................................................... 57 CHAPTER III: INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF WESTERN CORN ROOTWORM AND DROUGHT ON MAIZE HYBRIDS WITH AND WITHOUT DROUGHT- AND ROOTWORM-TOLERANCE IN THE FIELD ............................................................... 74 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 74 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................. 78 Experimental design. ................................................................................................. 78 Corn rootworm infestations ....................................................................................... 80 Soil moisture levels ................................................................................................... 81 Measurements................................................................................................................ 82 Yield. ......................................................................................................................... 82 Leaf water potential. .................................................................................................. 82 Stomatal conductance ................................................................................................ 83 Root damage ratings .................................................................................................. 83 Root