GENERALIST PIERCING-SUCKING INSECT DAMAGE CHANGE VOLATILE PROFILE IN CORN SEEDLINGS

JACOBI, VANESA GISELLA; FERNANDEZ PATRICIA CARINA; COLL ARAOZ MA. VICTORIA; JORGE A ZAVALA

Congreso; First Joint meeting ALAEQ -ISCE; 2016

Secondary metabolites play an important role in the co-evolution between plant defenses and herbivores. The emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) represents a source of chemical information that could be used by herbivorous insects as cues in selection and acceptance of host plants. Corn (Zea mays) seedlings emit a cocktail of volatile compounds that change under herbivore attack. Volatiles emitted by corn after chewing insects damage are widely characterized in literature, but there is not information about piercing-sucking insects, such as stink bugs. Dichelops furcatus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is a generalist neotropical stink bug that recently became a pest of corn in Argentina because it feeds an kills seedlings in the field. Here we studied D. furcatus feeding preference between two commercial corn hybrids, P1780YR (temperate) versus P30B39HR (tropical), and characterized its VOCs emission from damaged and undamaged seedlings. First, seedlings of both corn hybrids were offered to adult females of D. furcatus to assess feeding preference. Observations of feeding behavior were recorded every half an hour for 2,5hs. Volatiles released by damaged and undamaged plants were collected and analyzed by coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Adults of D. furcatus preferred to feed on seedlings with temperate genetic background during the first 2 hours (paired T test; p