Differential performance of Sitobion avenae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) clones from wheat and barley with implications for its management through alternative cultural practices.

Cultural control measures should play an important role in cereal aphid management on wheat and barley. Planting barley in fields adjacent to those of wheat and intercropping wheat with barley are cultural practices that might suppress the cosmopolitan cereal pest Sitobion avenae (F.). To evaluate the potential effects of these cultural measures on aphid outbreak risks, clones of S. avenae were collected from wheat and barley. Host-switch experiments for the collected clones were conducted in the laboratory to compare their life table parameters and other life history traits. Our results demonstrated that wheat clones of S. avenae had lower developmental times, higher fecundities, and higher growth rates compared with barley clones when tested on the plant of origin. When transferred to barley, the performance of wheat clones was decreased in terms of developmental times of nymphs and age at first reproduction of adults. Barley clones' performance was decreased in terms of reproductive time or lifespan of adult on wheat compared with that on barley. The age-specific survival rates of barley clones tended to be lower than wheat clones in the earlier part of their lives on wheat. The age-specific fecundity of barley clones on barley remained low and fluctuated significantly during their lifetime. Although quite a few significant correlations between developmental and reproductive traits were identified on both plants, no significantly negative correlations (i.e., trade-offs) for the traits were found between plants. The results suggested that barley clones could be generalized but wheat clones were more specialized to their host plant. The potential benefits of the abovementioned cultural measures were discussed.