A Procedure to Evaluate for Antibiosis in Cotton to the Tobacco Budworm123

Abstract
A procedure was developed that allows rapid testing of newly hatched larvae of Hetiothis virescens (F.) on the leaf of the cotton plant where the young larvae first feed. Large numbers of cotton lines were then tested for sources of antibiosis during the growth stage of the plant that is attacked by the budworm. The mean weight of tobacco budworm larvae was significantly smaller on 14 diverse cotton, Gossypium hirsutum L., lines than on ‘DPL-16’ after feeding 5-days on excised terminal leaves.