Cereal Leaf Beetle 1 : Interaction with and Ovipositional Adaptation to a Resistant Wheat 23

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Abstract
The oviposition behavior of cereal leaf beetles, Oulema melanopus (L.), confined with a resistant wheat (C.I. 8519) was altered by confining beetles in cages with different textures. Beetles in screen cages preferred to oviposit on the cage rather than the pubescent wheat; similar beetles confined in velvet-lined cages oviposited significantly more eggs on the resistant wheat. The duration of oviposition was also longer for beetles in the velvet cages. In both types of cages, ca. 5–7% of the female beetles oviposited longer than 26 days on C.I. 8519. Since some beetles are apparently adapted to ovipositing on pubescent wheat, the species may have coevolved with pubescent grasses. When the survival of a hypothetical generation of beetles on susceptible and resistant cultivars was compared, there was a 4.5- fold increase and a 78–94% decrease in numbers of adults, respectively.

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