BIOLOGY AND CULTURAL CONTROL OF LESSER CORNSTALK BORER ON SUGARCANE By HARDEV SINGH SANDHU A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Hardev Singh Sandhu 2 To my beloved parents, Mr. Joginder Singh and Mrs. Kulwant Kaur for their perpetual love and support and to my wife, Sandeep Sandhu for encouragement and understanding 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Gregg S. Nuessly, my doctoral committee chair, who provided excellent guidance, graduate training, motivation, unconditional support and trust to complete this project. He has mentored me throughout my doctoral studies, and his insight and guidance were essential in the completion of this dissertation. In addition, I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Susan E. Webb (Entomology and Nematology department) for providing laboratory facilities to complete biology studies and also for her helpful feedback and suggestions, Dr. Ronald H. Cherry (Everglades Research and Eduaction Center) for providing valuable suggestions for the improvement in writing research papers which became the part of this dissertation, and Dr. Robert A. Gilbert (EREC) for graciously agreeing to fill the outside member position on my committee and for critical review of manuscripts and valuable suggestions. I owe my sincere thanks to Drs. J. L. Capinera (Entomology and Nematology department) and K. Pernezny (EREC) for providing laboratory facilities for insect diet preparation. My special thanks to University of Florida extension agents Dr. R. Rice and L. Baucam, and L. Davis for their great help in finding research fields. I am deeply indebted to N. Larsen, M. Gonzalez, F. Sosa, J. Terry, G. Goyal, and B. Thappa (EREC) for assistance in moth collection, help in green house and field experiments. My sincere thanks to Drs. M. Brennan and J. Colee (Statistic department), and Drs. M. Josan and T. Lang (EREC) for assistance with statistics. I am extremely thankful to Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida and United States Sugar Corporation for providing funding for this study, and land for collecting insects and sugarcane. This work was made possible by student financial 4 support from the Wedgworth Graduate Fellowship and the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I profoundly thank my parents for all of their encouragement throughout my graduate studies. I would not be who I am and I would not have accomplished this work without their immense love and support. I have no words to thank my wife, Sandeep Sandhu for always being there for me, for encouraging me when frustration occurred, for always staying positive, and for her unconditional love. Finally, I would like to thank almighty god to bless me with courage and patience for this whole study period. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................ 11 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER 1 REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................... 16 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 16 Insect Pests and Sugarcane ................................................................................... 17 Systematics and Distribution of Lesser Cornstalk Borer ......................................... 18 Description and Life Cycle ...................................................................................... 19 Eggs ................................................................................................................. 19 Larvae .............................................................................................................. 21 Pupae............................................................................................................... 23 Adults ............................................................................................................... 24 Longevity and Reproductive Behavior.............................................................. 25 Fecundity.......................................................................................................... 25 Generation Time............................................................................................... 27 Number of Generations .................................................................................... 27 Abiotic Factors Affecting Development ................................................................... 28 Temperature..................................................................................................... 28 Soil Moisture..................................................................................................... 28 Host Plants ............................................................................................................. 30 Plant Damage by Lesser Cornstalk Borer............................................................... 30 Peanuts ............................................................................................................ 30 Corn ................................................................................................................. 31 Sorghum........................................................................................................... 32 Soybean ........................................................................................................... 32 Sugarcane........................................................................................................ 32 Control Strategies ................................................................................................... 33 Cultural Control....................................................................................................... 34 Planting Time ................................................................................................... 34 Cultivation......................................................................................................... 34 Irrigation ........................................................................................................... 35 Destruction of Alternate Hosts.......................................................................... 35 Fertilization....................................................................................................... 36 Green Harvesting ............................................................................................. 36 Chemical Control .................................................................................................... 36 6 Peanuts ............................................................................................................ 37 Corn ................................................................................................................. 38 Cowpeas and Southern Peas........................................................................... 39 Sugarcane........................................................................................................ 39 Biological Control.................................................................................................... 40 Sampling................................................................................................................. 41 Research Goals ...................................................................................................... 42 2 TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT OF LESSER CORNSTALK BORER, ELASMOPALPUS LIGNOSELLUS (LEPIDOPTERA: PYRALIDAE) ON SUGARCANE UNDER LABORATORY CONDITIONS........................................... 49 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 49 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 50 Insect Colony Maintenance .............................................................................. 51 Production of Sugarcane Plants ....................................................................... 51 Laboratory Temperature Developmental Studies ............................................. 52 Developmental Rate and Mathematical Models ............................................... 54 Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 56 Results.................................................................................................................... 56 Laboratory Temperature Developmental Studies ............................................. 56 Model Evaluation.............................................................................................. 58 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 59 Laboratory Temperature Developmental Studies ............................................. 59 Model Evaluation.............................................................................................