The Aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae) Associated With Bell Peppers and Surrounding Vegetation in Southern Illinois

Outbreaks of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) disease, caused by an aphid- transmitted pathogen, greatly reduced yields of bell pepper in southern Illinois in the mid-1990s. To provide the basis for further studies of the roles of individual apbid species in virus transmission, we surveyed aphid flights in and around pepper fields in 1996 and 1997 by using suction traps, interception nets, landing traps, sweep nets, and hand-picking. We collected 78 species of aphids, 15 of which have been reported to transmit CMV to peppers. The most abundant species taken from suction traps and interception nets in combination were Lipaphis erysimi, Rhopalosiphum padi, Rhopalosiphum maidis, Schizaphis graminum, and Aphis craccivora. All of these species are known to transmit CMV to peppers, but the phenology of R. maidis in Illinois suggests it is not the vector that brings CMV to pepper fields to initiate disease outbreaks. Brachycaudus helichrysi was relatively abundant in 1996 in May and June when a CMV outbreak may have been initiated; it was absent in 1997, and CMV infections were rare that season. Two species, Carolinaia carolinensis and Myzus hemerocallis were recorded for the first time in Illinois

Properties of the Strange Axial Mesons in the Relativized Quark Model

We studied properties of the strange axial mesons in the relativized quark model. We calculated the $K_1$ decay constant in the quark model and showed how it can be used to extract the $K_1 (^3P_1) - K_1 (^1P_1)$ mixing angle ($\theta_K$) from the weak decay $\tau \to K_1 \nu_\tau$. The ratio $BR(\tau \to \nu_\tau K_1 (1270))/BR(\tau\to \nu_\tau K_1(1400))$ is the most sensitive measurement and also the most reliable since the largest of the theoretical uncertainties factor out. However the current bounds extracted from the TPC/Two-Gamma collaboration measurements are rather weak: we typically obtain $-30^o \lesssim \theta_K \lesssim 50^o$ at 68\% C.L. We also calculated the strong OZI-allowed decays in the pseudoscalar emission model and the flux-tube breaking model and extracted a $^3P_1 - ^1P_1$ mixing angle of $\theta_K \simeq 45^o$. Our analysis also indicates that the heavy quark limit does not give a good description of the strange mesons.Comment: Revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. D. Minor changes. Latex file uses revtex version 3 and epsfig, 4 postcript figures are attached. The full postcript version with embedded figures is available at ftp://ftp.physics.carleton.ca/pub/theory/godfrey/ocipc9512.ps.