Laboratory Transmission of Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus by Three Species of Corn Rootworms. Stanley G. Jensen, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, and Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68583-0722. Plant Dis. 69:864-868. Accepted for publication 12 June 1985. 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/PD-69-864.

Greenhouse and laboratory tests were conducted on the transmission of maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) by three species of Diabrotica. No latent period was detected. Virus was recovered from the gut and in trace amounts from the hemolymph. There was no correlation between the presence of recoverable virus in or on the insect and its ability to transmit. No transovarial passage of the virus was detected. Larvae transmitted the virus from fresh material but not from dead plant residue. Infectious virus was not recovered from dead plant material held over the winter. The epidemiology and overwintering of MCMV cannot be readily explained in terms of the beetle-virus interaction.