STUDIES ON SALIVARY PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANT-BUGS - EXPERIMENTAL INDUCTION OF GALLS

The formation of nodules on the roots of vines grown in aqueous solutions is shown to be an inadequate test for hypotheses of cecidogenesis by Hemiptera. 14C-labelled precursors were used to demonstrate the production of the plant growth hormone, 3-indoleacetic acid, during salivation of a plant-bug; and a normally non-cecidogenic bug was made temporarily cecidogenic by the injection into it of excess amounts of the metabolic precursors for IAA-production. It is suggested that IAA could be the universal cause of cecidogenesis by plant-bugs, and that the specificity of gall-morphology is explicable in terms of the insects' behaviour. © 1968.