No evidence for change in oviposition behaviour of Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) after widespread adoption of transgenic insecticidal cotton

• Published in: Bulletin of entomological research Vol. 102; no. 4; pp. 468 - 476
• Main Authors: Zalucki, M.P., Cunningham, J.P., Downes, S., Ward, P., Lange, C., Meissle, M., Schellhorn, N.A., Zalucki, J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.08.2012
• Subjects: Adoption; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Animal populations; Animal reproduction; Animals; Australia; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Biological and medical sciences; Brassica; Butterflies & moths; Cotton; Crops; Crops, Agricultural - parasitology; Eggs; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genetic engineering applications; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Gossypium - genetics; Helicoverpa armigera; Host plants; Insecta; Invertebrates; Landscape; Lepidoptera; Moths - drug effects; Moths - genetics; Nicotiana; Noctuidae; Oviposition; Oviposition - drug effects; Pest control; Pests; Plant breeding: fundamental aspects and methodology; Plants, Genetically Modified; Tobacco; Toxins; Transgenic plants; Australia; host preference; natural selection; Helicoverpa armigera; source-sink; Bt cotton; Malvaceae; Insecta; Cotton; Fiber crop; Natural selection; Arthropoda; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Lepidoptera; Spermatophyta; Gossypium hirsutum; Transgenic plant; Noctuidae; Invertebrata; Egg laying behavior; Host preference; Adoption
• ISSN: 0007-4853; 1475-2670; 1475-2670
• DOI: 10.1017/S0007485311000848

Cotton growing landscapes in Australia have been dominated by dual-toxin transgenic Bt varieties since 2004. The cotton crop has thus effectively become a sink for the main target pest, Helicoverpa armigera. Theory predicts that there should be strong selection on female moths to avoid laying on such plants. We assessed oviposition, collected from two cotton-growing regions, by female moths when given a choice of tobacco, cotton and cabbage. Earlier work in the 1980s and 1990s on populations from the same geographic locations indicated these hosts were on average ranked as high, mid and low preference plants, respectively, and that host rankings had a heritable component. In the present study, we found no change in the relative ranking of hosts by females, with most eggs being laid on tobacco, then cotton and least on cabbage. As in earlier work, some females laid most eggs on cotton and aspects of oviposition behaviour had a heritable component. Certainly, cotton is not avoided as a host, and the implications of these finding for managing resistance to Bt cotton are discussed.