PRELIMINARY STUDIES ON WOUND-INDUCED AND PIIF-INDUCED RESISTANCE IN SOME SOLANACEOUS PLANTS AGAINST SPODOPTERA-LITTORALIS (BOISD) (LEP, NOCTUIDAE)

Wound-induced resistance in tomato seedlings (cv. "Moneymaker") against Spodoptera littoralis larvae was studied under low (20-degrees-C) and high (30 and 35-degrees-C) temperature conditions after exposure of the plants to mechanical damage. While the leaves of the wounded seedlings kept at the low temperature did not exhibit significant changes in palatability, the wounded plants maintained at the high temperature showed a significant reduction in their acceptability for the larvae. However, when the leaves of two other solanaceous plants, Solanum pseudocapsicum and Physalis alkehengi, favoring low temperature conditions were wounded and kept at 20-degrees-C, a significant reduction in the acceptability of their leaves for S. littoralis larvae was observed. Treatment of the excised tomato leaves with crude proteinase inhibitor inducing factor (PIIF) according to RYAN (1974) for 15 min did not result in a significant decline in their palatability. The possibility of the presence of a transportable factor other than "PIIF" and "Proteinase Inhibitors" and the importance of consideration of the essential factors influencing the translocation of endogenous substances in the wounded plants are discussed.