Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Preliminary Business Meeting:

1) After reviewing the location of previous meetings, just prior to the meeting, C. DiFonzo discussed the possibility of a 2004 meeting in Columbus, Ohio with B. Eisley (The Ohio State University). B. Eisley agreed to serve as local arrangements should NCR-46 confirm with NC-205 that the next meeting would be in Columbus. A call was put out for other nominations to be received at the final business meeting.

2) Just prior to the meeting, C. DiFonzo, talked with B. Fuller about the possibility of serving as Secretary in 2004 and he agreed. A call was put out for other nominations to be received at the final business meeting.

3) Administrative updates and management guide deferred until Monday.

4) B. Hibbard noted that the NIMSS database has now been updated so that all official members are now listed so that anyone in the country can see who is a member of NCR-46. This website is located at http://www.lgu.umd.edu/login.cfm, where anyone can enter as a guest. It was noted that the site is NOT updated concerning which individuals are working on which of the project objectives for NCR-46. This was discussed briefly and it was decided that if individuals wanted their information updated, they could do so through their respective experiment stations. R. Nowierski mentioned that this was a valuable database from a CSREES perspective and that it would be helpful to be add such things as meeting dates and agenda to the site.

5) It was pointed out that symposia ideas for the ESA national meeting need to be to Bob Wright by March 1.

6) P. Porter mentioned that if expertise on the Mexican corn rootworm is desired, an invitation to attend the meeting to specific individuals would be helpful.

7) C. Guse brought up the possibility of inviting internationals from Argentina or Mexico who are working with Diabrotica to the meeting. The idea was discussed and it was suggested that perhaps individual institutions could bring someone in during this time frame so that they could give a departmental seminar and also attend the NCR-46 meeting. It was also mentioned that the meeting could go to Mexico in the future.

Final Business Meeting
Pat Porter mentioned that the NC-205 reports are now accumulated on CD rather than on paper. The idea of something similar being done for NCR-46 was discussed. Bruce Hibbard agreed to receive electronic versions of the reports in Word, WordPerfect, or PDF files and assemble them on a CD for NCR-46 members and collaborators.

2004 meeting tentatively planned for Sunday, January 25 - Tuesday January 27 in Columbus, Ohio. Bruce Eisley will serve as local arrangements.

Billy Fuller confirmed as next year?s secretary.

Administrative Reports:

Steve Pueppke, Administrative Advisor update

-Unclear at present what biosecurity is going to mean and where the funding is going to come from (administrators are busy).
-International markets are important and will affect corn rootworm transgenic crops, but the path forward through the markets.
-Bad state budgets are leading to trends across a number of land-grant universities: 1) new waves of restructuring departments are being considered, 2) a disproportionate amount of pressure has been placed on extension, and 3) ?privatizing activities? are being investigated to help free up universities from the ups and downs of state budget cycles.

Robert Noweirski (USDA/CSREES Representative) - National Program Leader for Biobased pest management and administrator of RAMP

Provided background information on where his position fits into the CSREES structure and some of the topics that he has been working with:
-IPM at the federal level will likely be fortified with additional training of employees in several branches of government.
-Risk assessment in the release of biocontrol agents.
-developing partnership between USDA and EPA to increase development, adoption, and implementation of biobased pest management.
-4th National IPM Symposium (April, 2003 in Indianapolis).

Funding opportunities and programs at CSREES was discussed.

I. Abundance/Distribution

Illinois - populations down, but a slight expansion to the north and northwest of the rotation-adapted population.
Indiana - relatively low populations, but economic damage occurred.
Iowa - population up in the last two years, especially in the northwest portion of the state.
Kansas - moderate populations similar to the last few years.
Michigan - low to moderate in most of the state
Minnesota - dramatic increase over the last six years, including perhaps some western corn rootworms in rotated corn
Missouri - rootworm problems in areas of continuous corn.
Nebraska - some hot spot areas where populations were high. Extensive injury from populations that do not usually cause that level, probably due to drought in many areas.
Ohio - numbers of adults were up in sticky traps, especially in areas under drought.
Pennsylvania - high rootworm pressure across the state.
South Dakota - moderate to high pressure, mostly from northern corn rootworm. Dry conditions caused some corn not to germinate and larvae did not establish as a result.
Virginia - moderate populations pressure dry in most areas.
Ontario - low to moderate populations.
North Dakota - population were moderate with approximately 90% northern corn rootworms. Little continuous corn.
Texas - corn is grown to a lesser extent south of Amarillo than previously and rootworms are much more rare than before.

II. Sampling/Dispersal

Illinois - Joe Spenser presented material on monitoring movement from MON 863 using gene checks on insects. Fifty percent of the beetles remain positive 16 hr after feeding on MON 863 as adults. Adults moved an average of 8.5 meters per day in corn and less than that in soybean (males moved only 2.2 meters per day in soybean). Not known whether newly emerged adults have detectable Cry3Bb1 with this system. Western corn rootworm adults will die rather quickly (almost as if starved) if fed solely on soybean. If fed both corn and soybean, then no nutrition is fine.

Iowa - Ted Wilson (currently in Missouri) presented flight mill data. He tested mated 5 day old females in flight mill tests. Those that were fed MON 863 as larvae did not take as many long duration flights, but were still good flyers. When they did take sustained flights, the flight time tended to be longer. No virgin females took sustained flights. Only 5% of males took a sustained flights.

Kansas - Wilde: Trece lure trap is easy to handle and does well in catching western corn rootworms. Many beetles were found in first year corn, with more than 50% of the fields exceeding the treatment threshold of 1 beetle per plant. Adults are moving to new fields in large numbers.

Missouri - Hibbard: Larval movement was evaluated from point sources of viable egg levels of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 eggs per infested plant in 2000, 2001, and 2002. A 3200 viable egg level was also tested in 2001 and 2002. All eggs were infested on one plant per sub-plot in a field that was planted to soybeans (Glycine max L.) in the previous year. For each sub-plot, the infested plant, three plants down the row, the closest plant in the adjacent row of the plot, and a control plant at least 1.5 m from any infested plant (six plants total) were sampled. Initial establishment on a corn plant appeared to not be density-dependent because a similar percentage of larvae was recovered from all infestation rates. Plant damage and, secondarily, subsequent post-establishment larval movement were density-dependent. Very little damage and post-establishment movement occurred at lower infestation levels, but significant damage and movement occurred at higher infestation rates. Movement generally occurred at a similar time as significant plant damage and not at initial establishment, so timing of movement appeared to be motivated by available food resources rather than crowding. At the highest infestation level in 2001, significant movement three plants down the row and across the 0.76 m row was detected, perhaps impacting refuge strategies for transgenic corn.

Nebraska - Nowatski: Corn plants treated with rubidium chloride in whorl tissue. Artificially infested larvae fed on plants in first year corn. Produced approximately 55,000 beetles and captured about 3,000 males and 370 females. Males moved shortly after emergence. Females remained in the area until after mated. 91% of mating pairs capture in the area of emergence.

III. Egg laying

Minnesota - Ostlie: Western corn rootworm in first year corn confirmed in 2001 and 2002 in a total of three sites. Lodging in southeast Minnesota is going up dramatically. Whether this is independent of what is going on in Illinois/Indiana is unknown.

Nebraska - rotation is not as common and adaptation to crop rotation has not been found, although there have been questions on a few fields.

Pennsylvania - variant not detected.

South Dakota - a small amount (less than 3%) of extended diapause for western corn rootworms found.

Ontario - Goal to access risk of the rotation-adapted western corn rootworm population coming to Ontario. Trying to discriminate rotation-adapted western corn rootworm individuals from ?normal? individuals using molecular approaches. What is the frequency of the rotation-adapted population, especially along the fringes of where it occurs? Problem: initial RAPID technique is not as reproducible. Currently developing techniques that ?everyone? can use.

IV. Host-insect interactions

Missouri - Schweikert/Hibbard - M.S. project involved 3 infestation levels, 10 infestation times, and recovering larvae at 370 and 430 degree days (early second and early third instars). Later infestation dates established on the plant, but did not produce adults.

Nebraska - Campbell/Meinke - Evaluated western, northern, southern corn rootworms and Diabrotica cristata in 3 prairie corn environments. Diabrotica cristata observed in corn, but trapped almost exclusively in prairie sites. Location of northern corn rootworm adults was variable, but they were mostly found in corn. Western corn rootworm adults were found in high densities in corn. In one site they were also found feeding on pollinating ragweed outside of the corn field. It is not known whether or not they were laying eggs. Southern corn rootworm not seen much in corn and were found mostly seen in prairies.
Foster/Pete Clark - Evaluated feeding behavior of western corn rootworm larvae on MON 863 and isoline. Gel based media used so that feeding could be observed and material could be seen passing through the gut. No apparent difference in the feeding site.

Missouri - Clark and Hibbard presented portions of several sets of experiments dealing with alternate hosts. The bottom line is that western corn rootworm larvae can survive at least a week on the roots of almost all grass species evaluated and that they develop at least to the third instar on the majority of species.

Illinois - Levine - bean pod mottle virus is an important disease of soybean known to be transmitted by bean leaf beetles. Levine?s group demonstrated that the disease can also be transmitted by western corn adults (although not very efficiently compared to the bean leaf beetle). A concern was that western corn rootworms are more mobile than bean leaf beetles. The disease was first reported in 1975 and is now statewide. Western corn rootworms were tested for bean pod mottle virus 2000 and 2001. Most of the counties had at least some western corn rootworm beetles that tested positive for the disease.

IV. Diapause/Insectides/Plant Resistance -

Minnesota - Ostlie - Extended diapause of the northern corn rootworm is becoming very prevalent southwestern part of Minnesota. The odd number cohort is more prevalent than the even number cohort. Insecticides are providing a yield advantage in 80 to 85% of the fields, but seed treatments did not work well in Minnesota..

Nebraska - under dry conditions seed treatments worked very well, better than granular soil insecticides.

Iowa - Park/Tollefson - discussed research involving site specific management and methods to predict future damage zones and create different management zones based on damage zones and then to validate the predictions. The best predictor of many evaluated was peak adult population.

Missouri - Hibbard: A large native resistance program in Missouri has developed lines that are significantly less damaged than modern hybrids, but not significantly more damaged than an insecticide check. Reduced damage holds up best under moderate infestations. Under very high rootworm pressure, the resistance is much less apparent.

V. Area wide Management

Texas - Porter- Although not in the ARS area-wide program, certain consultants and growers are using Capture in an area-wide way. Unfortunately, spidermites are now as much as 500 fold resistant to Capture than they were before and no replacement miticides are available.

Nebraska - shifts over time in susceptibility. Same diagnostic dose was killing fewer insects over time. Reduced sensitivity to cucurbitacins over time may also have been taking place.

Iowa - Program is done - was it a success? Yes, in Iowa in terms reducing damage the following year and reducing the overall number of acres that need to be treated over time. It was cheaper to control on an area-wide basis and gave just as good control as soil insecticides (on average). Also, the total amount of toxicant is greatly reduced on a per unit area. Twenty fold reduction in toxicant and 40% reduction in acreage that needed treatment. However the program did not succeed in terms of getting farmers to understand that it must be in an area-wide program in that some farmers were willing to enroll a single field after the federal funding was gone.

Indiana - able to reduce adult populations, but the bottom line is that it did not work in Indiana.

Forthcoming