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Ecology and Epidemiology

Effect of Root Feeding by Striped Cucumber Beetle Larvae on the Incidence and Severity of Fusarium Wilt of Muskmelon. R. X. Latin, Assistant professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907; G. L. Reed, research entomologist, Fruit and Vegetable Insects Research Laboratory, USDA, ARS, Vincennes, IN 47591 and Department of Entomology, Purdue University. Phytopathology 75:209-212. Accepted for publication 1 October 1984. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1985. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-75-209.

Incidence and severity of Fusarium wilt were evaluated on muskmelon seedlings grown in a soil-less substrate infested with microconidia of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis (FOM) and eggs of the striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum) (STCB). Inoculum levels of FOM were 0, 10³, 10⁵, and 10⁷ microconidia per seedling and STCB infestation levels were 0, 5, 10, and 20 eggs per seedling. Incidence and severity of Fusarium wilt were significantly greater in treatments that included STCB infestations of 5, 10, and 20 eggs per plant. In another experiment, six levels of microconidia of FOM were applied to seedling substrate, either infested with six eggs of STCB per seedling or uninfested. Regression lines describing the relationship between log inoculum dose and log disease incidence for plants infested and uninfested with STCB eggs were unequal. Disease incidence was observed at a lower inoculum level where treatment included STCB infestation. The increased incidence and severity of Fusarium wilt due to root-feeding by STCB larvae provide the rationale for controlling root-feeding stages of insects on muskmelon.