Cold-Hardiness of Empoasca fabae and Some Related Species

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Abstract
Zones of fatal low temperatures and a range of supercooling points were determined for 4 species of Empoasca. The only one of these 4 species known to overwinter in Illinois,E. recurvata DeLong, survived prolonged exposures at temperatures of-5, -10, or -15°C. The potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris), a permanent resident of the Gulf Coast and an annual migrant to the Midwest, was much less tolerant than E. recurvata but more tolerant than E. kraemeri Ross & Moore or E. fabalis DeLong, both neotropical species. The supercooling point for the 4 species bore about the same relationship one to another. These data support prior findings that winter survival of E. fabae in the Midwest is highly improbable.