The importance of alternative host plants as reservoirs of the cotton leaf hopper, Amrasca devastans, and its natural enemies

Many agricultural pests can be harboured by alternative host plants but these can also harbour the pests’ natural enemies. We evaluated the capacity of non-cotton plant species (both naturally growing and cultivated) to function as alternative hosts for the cotton leaf hopper Amrasca devastans (Homoptera: Ciccadellidae) and its natural enemies. Forty-eight species harboured A. devastans. Twenty-four species were true breeding hosts, bearing both nymphal and adult A. devastans, the rest were incidental hosts. The crop Ricinus communis and the vegetables Abelmoschus esculentus and Solanum melongena had the highest potential for harbouring A. devastans and carrying it over into the seedling cotton crop. Natural enemies found on true alternative host plants were spiders, predatory insects (Chrysoperla carnea, Coccinellids, Orius spp. and Geocoris spp.) and two species of egg parasitoids (Arescon enocki and Anagrus sp.). Predators were found on 23 species of alternative host plants, especially R. communis. Parasitoids emerged from one crop species (R. communis) and three vegetable species; with 39 % of A. devastans parasitised. We conclude that the presence of alternative host plants provides both advantages and disadvantages to the cotton agro-ecosystem because they are a source of both natural enemy and pest species. To reduce damage by A. devastans, we recommend that weeds that harbour the pest should be removed, that cotton cultivation with R. communis, A. esculentus, and S. melongena should be avoided, that pesticides should be applied sparingly to cultivate alternative host plants and that cotton crops should be sown earlier

The Family Acholeplasmataceae (Including Phytoplasmas)The Prokaryotes

The family Acholeplasmataceae was originally established to accommodate the genus Acholeplasma, comprising the mollicutes that could be cultivated without the supplement of cholesterol and that use UGA as a stop codon instead of coding for tryptophan. It was later shown that the phytoplasmas, a large group of uncultivable, wall-less, non-helical mollicutes that are associated with plants and insects, shared taxonomically relevant properties with members of the genus Acholeplasma. Being not cultivable in vitro in axenic culture, the phytoplasmas could not be classified using the standards used for other mollicutes and are named using the category of Candidatus, as “Ca. Phytoplasma.” Although phytoplasmas are associated with habitats and ecology different from acholeplasmas, the two genera Acholeplasma and “Candidatus Phytoplasma” are phylogenetically related and form a distinct clade within the Mollicutes. The persisting inability to grow the phytoplasmas in vitro hinders the identification of their distinctive phenotypic traits, important criteria for mollicute classification. Until supplemental phenotypic traits become available, the genus “Candidatus Phytoplasma” is designated, on the basis of phylogeny, as a tentative member in the family Acholeplasmataceae. Phylogenetic analysis based on gene sequences, in particular, ribosomal sequences, has provided the major supporting evidence for the composition and taxonomic subdivision of this group of organisms with diverse habitats and ecology and has become the mainstream for the Acholeplasmataceae systematics. However, without the ability to determine phenotypic properties, the circumscription of related species among the non culturable members of the family remains a major issue. The genus Acholeplasma comprises 14 species predominantly associated with animals and isolated from mammalian fluids but regarded as not normally pathogenic. Conversely, the genus “Ca. Phytoplasma” includes plant pathogens of major economic relevance worldwide. To date, 36 “Ca. Phytoplasma species” have been described