EFFECTS OF INHERITED STERILITY AND INSECT RESISTANT DENT-CORN SILKS ON HELICOVERPA-ZEA (LEPIDOPTERA, NOCTUIDAE) DEVELOPMENT

Male and female corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), adults were exposed to a substerilizing dose (10 krads) of gamma radiation after which their progeny were reared on a meridic diet containing selected concentrations of dry silk collected from resistant dent corn genotypes. Significant interactions were observed between the developmental time of progeny from irradiated females and progeny from normal parents and meridic diets with increasing degrees of resistance. A significant interaction also was observed between the mean larval weights of normal and substerile larvae and diets with increasing degrees of resistance. The 9-d weight of normal larvae was significantly higher than the weight of substerile larvae at the lowest degree of resistance, but differences between the weight of normal and substerile larvae at the highest degree of resistance were not significant. Larvae from irradiated male by normal female crosses were equally competitive with normal larvae for all measured parameters. Data from this study suggest that plant resistance and inherited sterility would be compatible control strategies for the management of H. zea populations.