C. Kjaer et U. Heimbach, Relationships between sulfonylurea herbicide treatment of host plants and the performance of herbivorous insects, PEST MAN SC, 57(12), 2001, pp. 1161-1166
Previous work had shown that the sulfonylurea herbicide chlorsulfuron affec
ted the survival of a herbivorous insect species dwelling on a sub-lethally
exposed host plant. Further experiments have been conducted to establish w
hether this negative effect was a single occurrence characteristic for the
specific insect-plant interaction and the specific herbicide tested. Three
insect-plant interactions were tested for the effects of selected sulfonylu
rea herbicides, ie metsulfuron-methyl, chlorsulfuron and tribenuron-methyl.
The species pairs tested were Pieris brassicae/Brassica napus, Gastrophysa
polygoni/Fallopia convolvulus and Sitobium avenae/Triticum aestivium. No s
ignificant effects on survival and relative growth rate of P brassicae or G
polygoni were found when treating the host plants with sulfonylurea herbic
ides. However, the host plants had a significantly reduced root and shoot g
rowth rate when treated with herbicide. Treating T aestivium with the recom
mended field rate of metsulfuron-methyl did not cause any change in develop
ment time, growth rate or fecundity of S avenae feeding on the host plants.
The data presented suggest that the increased mortality observed for G pol
ygoni larvae feeding on chlorsulfuron-treated host plants observed earlier
was characteristic for this herbicide and for the specific plant-insect int
eraction only. (C) 2001 Society of Chemical Industry.