Ovipositional Preferences of the Alfalfa Blotch Leafminer1 (Diptera: Agromyzidae) among Some Simple and Glandular-Haired Medicago Species2

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Six Medicago L. species were evaluated in a no-choice oviposition test for the alfalfa blotch leafminer (ABL), Agromyza frontella (Rondani). The Medicago species consisted of the annual diploids M. disciformis DeCandolle and M. blancheana Boissier; the annual tetraploids M. rugosa Desrousseaux, M. noeana Boissier, and M. scutellata (L.) Miller; and the perennial tetraploid M. sativa L. var. ‘Arc’. More eggs were laid on M. sativa leaflets than on the other Medicago entries. ABL preferred to oviposit on nonglandular-haired Medicago entries. Density and pinholes, numbers of simple, glandular, and procumbent glandular hairs, and area of the leaflets were measured for each species entry and analyzed by multiple-regression techniques to determine their importance in ABL oviposition. Density of glandular hairs appeared to affect ABL oviposition the greatest. The regression model, however, did not account for the total egg variation in this preference test (R2 = 0.31).