Leslie R. Elberson

The botany, uses and production ofWasabia japonica (Miq.) (Cruciferae) Matsum

Wasabi (Wasabia japonica) is a unique native plant and a traditional condiment crop of Japan. It is used in traditional Japanese raw fish and noodle dishes and in several modern foods for its hot taste and tangy flavor. Japanese farmers grow the crop in wet upland orchard soils for leaves, petioles and small enlarged stems, and in flooded gravel and sand fields along streams or near springs to produce whole plants and large succulent green enlarged stems. Recent studies in Japan have demonstrated numerous enzymatic and biocidal properties of the plant. This review of Japanese and other literature details the history, uses, botany, cultivars, ecological requirements, production techniques, insect pests and diseases of wasabi.

Flies (Diptera: Muscidae: Calliphoridae) are efficient pollinators of Allium ampeloprasum L. (Alliaceae) in field cages.

Abstract In conjunction with efforts to identify efficient insect pollinators for seed multiplication of cross-pollinated plant species stored and maintained by USDA–ARS Western Regional Plant Introduction Station (WRPIS), experiments were conducted to assess and compare the efficiency of the house fly, Musca domestica L. (Diptera: Muscidae), and Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae), and different densities of each fly species, to pollinate leek, Allium ampeloprasum L., plant inventory (PI) accessions in field cages for seed yield maximization and high germination. Cages with flowering plants were exposed to 0 flies or stocked with 100, 250, and 500 M. domestica or C. vicina pupae per week for 6 (2002) and 7 (2004) wk. Seed yield (weight per cage) increased linearly as fly densities (C. vicina or M. domestica) increased from 0 to 500 pupae per week, with 500 fly cages averaging 340.7 g (C. vicina) and 70.5 g (M. domestica) of seed in 2002 (PI 368343) and 615.3 g (PI 168977) and 357.5 g (PI 368343) in 2004 when only the C. vicina was used. For 0, 100, and 250 fly cages, seed yields averaged between 2.3 and 175.3 g in 2002 and 10.7 and 273.1 g in 2004. Mean 100-seed weights between treatments ranged narrowly between 0.4 and 0.5 g in 2002 and 0.3 and 0.4 g in 2004, and germination rates of seed lots from “fly cages” were mostly ≥80% in both years. The C. vicina is an efficient and cost-effective pollinator (

Detrimental and Neutral Effects of a Wild Grass-Fungal Endophyte Symbiotum on Insect Preference and Performance

388.97 for pupae and shipping, compared with

Cereal Leaf Beetle Colonizes Grass Germplasm Nurseries and Impacts Seed Production Activities

2,400 for honey bee, Apis mellifera L. [Hymenoptera: Apidae], nuclei) for caged leek accessions, with 250 and 500 C. vicina pupae per week required to produce sufficient seed (130 g) to fill an accession storage bag in the WRPIS gene bank.

Variable Effects of Grass-Neotyphodium Associations on Cereal Leaf Beetle (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) Feeding, Development and Survival

Abstract Seed-borne Epichloë/Neotyphodium Glenn, Bacon, Hanlin (Ascomycota: Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) fungal endophytes in temperate grasses can provide protection against insect attack with the degree of host resistance related to the grass—endophyte symbiotum and the insect species involved in an interaction. Few experimental studies with wild grass—endophyte symbiota, compared to endophyte-infected agricultural grasses, have tested for anti-insect benefits, let alone for resistance against more than one insect species. This study quantified the preference and performance of the bird cherry oat-aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) and the cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus (L.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), two important pests of forage and cereal grasses, on Neotyphodium-infected (E+) and uninfected (E-) plants of the wild grass Alpine timothy, Phleum alpinum L. (Poales: Poaceae). The experiments tested for both constitutive and wound-induced resistance in E+ plants to characterize possible plasticity of defense responses by a wild E+ grass. The aphid, R. padi preferred E- over E+ test plants in choice experiments and E+ undamaged test plants constitutively expressed antibiosis resistance to this aphid by suppressing population growth. Prior damage of E+ test plants did not induce higher levels of resistance to R. padi. By contrast, the beetle, O. melanopus showed no preference for E+ or E- test plants and endophyte infection did not adversely affect the survival and development of larvae. These results extend the phenomenon of variable effects of E+ wild grasses on the preference and performance of phytophagous insects. The wild grass— Neotyphodium symbiotum in this study broadens the number of wild E+ grasses available for expanded explorations into the effects of endophyte metabolites on insect herbivory.

Toxicity of isothiocyanates produced by glucosinolates in brassicaceae species to black vine weevil eggs

The attached file is the abstract only. The entire document is available through the Plant Management Network International at: http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/

Toxicity of Rapeseed Meal and Methyl Isothiocyanate to Larvae of the Black Vine Weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Although cereal grains are the preferred food plants of the cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus (L.), several other graminoid species are acceptable feeding hosts of larvae and adults of this chrysomelid beetle. In view of the potential for expanding the use of diverse endophytic fungi (Neotyphodium Glenn, Bacon and Hanlin) to protect forage and cereal grasses from insect pests, more information on the effect of Neotyphodium-infected (E+) grasses on the behavior and performance of the most important graminoid pests, including O. melanopus, is required. In feeding and oviposition choice experiments, adult O. melanopus fed readily on E+ and uninfected (E−) plants of wild tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) S.J. Darbyshire) and alpine timothy (Phleum alpinum L.), while exhibiting a feeding preference for E− over E+ plants of one tall fescue accession. In larval survival and development experiments, low survival on E+ plants of alpine timothy and one tall fescue accession (averaged 3.75 - 12.5%) was not linked to slow development of surviving larvae because developmental periods were similar on E− (averaged 11.31 - 12.73 days) and E+ (11.33 - 11.7 days) plants. Larval mortality was 100% on E+ plants of tall fescue from Morocco. Thus, O. melanopus feeding and survival is significantly reduced on some E+ wild grasses. Our results also expand our knowledge of the antiinsect properties of fungal endophytes in diverse grasses for possible use in protecting forage and cereal grass cultivars from O. melanopus and other important pests.