Dates: April 2001- August 2004
Funding: DFID Competitive Research Facility
Countries: Syria, Iran, Turkey; West and Central Asia
Collaborators: Dr
Mustapha El-Bouhssini, ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria;
CABI;
University of Vermont
NRI Project Leader: David Hall
Background
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The Sunn pest (Eurygaster integriceps Puton)
is a very damaging insect pest of wheat and barley in
countries of West Asia, including Afghanistan, Iran,
Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey, as well as in the Central
Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), and Bulgaria and Romania.
Sunn pest infestations spread over 15 million ha in
the affected area. Both nymphs and adults cause damage
by feeding on leaves, stems and grains. Yield loss is
commonly estimated at 20-30% in barley and 50-90% in
wheat. Apart from the direct reduction in yield, the
insects also inject chemicals that greatly reduce the
baking quality of the dough.
Wheat is the most important food crop in the Central
and West Asia region. It provides a substantial component
of the human diet: wheat products provide over 40% of
the per capita dietary supply of calories and protein
in most of the countries mentioned above, and substantially
more in some of the Central Asian Republics.
Control of Sunn pest by chemical insecticides is expensive,
costing over US$ 40 million annually in the countries
concerned, and poses a risk to human health, water quality
and the environment as a whole. The present insecticide-based
strategies for control of Sunn pest must be replaced
with multi-dimensional integrated pest management (IPM)
approaches. The proposed research addresses an urgent
need of farmers in the West and Central Asian region
in their effort to grow an abundance of high-quality
grain.
Results
The purpose of the project is to reduce constraints
to wheat production caused by Sunn pest in West and
Central Asia, through the development and application
of appropriate, low-cost and environmentally acceptable
IPM approaches.
The project involves assessment of economic thresholds
for Sunn pest populations and determination of the role
of egg parasitoids in suppressing Sunn pest populations.
Entomopathogenic fungi will be evaluated for control
of Sunn pest. The role of semiochemicals in host and
mate finding by Sunn pest will be established and their
use in management of the pest investigated. Sources
of resistance to Sunn pest in wheat and its wild relatives
will be identified and germplasm will be developed.
Appropriate IPM packages will be tested on-farm and
disseminated through a farmer participatory approach.
NRI is responsible for the work on semiochemicals. To
date, attraction of female bugs by male bugs has been
demonstrated in a laboratory bioassay. Males have been
confirmed to produce large amounts of a homobisabolene
with smaller amounts of bisabolene and vanillin. Ethyl
acrylate was not found. The compounds are produced only
by the overwintering generation and not by the summer
generation, suggesting that they have some role in mate-finding.
However, no components were observed to elicit responses
in linked GC-EAG analyses. Recordings of characteristic
vibrational signals were made from male bugs in the
presence of male or female bugs on the same stem. Results
indicate these signals are probably important in mate
recognition at close-range.
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Further Information
Prof. Alan Cork
Email: A.Cork@gre.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1634 883209
Fax: +44 (0)1634 883386
