Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Chair of the technical committee, Ron Hammond, opened the meeting at 8:00 a.m. He asked the attendees to introduce themselves to the group.

For the first order of business, Hammond appointed the two past chairs, Lentz and Boethel, to serve as the Nominating committee to select a chair and a secretary for the annual meeting next year. This years secretary, David Hogg, has accepted an administrative position and needs to be replaced. Mo Way, in an email to the chair, volunteered to host next years meeting and serve as chair of the technical committee. His proposal to host the meeting and serve as the chair of the technical committee was acceptable to the members present. Lentz volunteered to take the minutes for this years meeting.

Hammond mentioned that John Hill, a virologist from Iowa State University, had asked him about meeting jointly with S-1010. This proposal will be pursued further.

Administrative Advisor Boethel commended Hammond for his work in getting the project written and in hosting the meeting this year. Although the meeting was originally a Southern regional project, the meeting is now truly a national project and it expected that there will be wider participation. Boethel indicated that the NIMSS reporting form did not have adequate space to fully justify the project. Anna Marie Raspberry, assistant to Southern Director Executive Director, Eric Young (Horticulturalist at NCSU) did much to expedite the new project. Boethel suggested that she be sent a letter of commendation. Hammond indicated that he would send a letter of gratitude to her.

Bill Hoffman of CSREES reported on the status of two RFPs, the Pest Management Alternatives and the Integrated Pest Management Program. He reported that there are currently four regional Pest Management Centers (Cornell, Florida, California Davis and Michigan State University). Crop profiles and IPM Strategic Plans were discussed. The centers are established as a source of information in the region. Hoffman indicated that there is now a request out for applications for four-year projects. He indicated that IR-4 continues. CSREES met with EPA and the Land Grant Universities to bring together new ideas. The Plant Diagnostic Network was discussed. It is an effort to nationally detect threats to the U.S. Hubs are located at Cornell, Florida, Michigan State, Kansas State and California Davis with information in the CAPS repository at Purdue.

Hammond asked for a report on other meetings. The soybean breeders met at St. Louis; the Virus Disease group met with the breeders. Syngenta hosted a meeting on seed treatments for soybean. Gaucho, Prescribe (high rate of Gaucho), Poncho and Cruiser were considered. There were two rates of Gaucho with the low rate for secondary pests. The high rate is for bean leaf beetle (BLB) and soybean aphid (SBA) control. Hammonds assessment is that the seed treatment research needs to proceed.
Ragsdale indicated that the resistance to soybean aphid is in MG IV-VII and not in the MG 0-III.

ONeil commented on the Soybean Aphid Meetings. It appears that environment and native predators are the main factors affecting populations. Ragsdale reported on the damage potential, indicating that a reduction in pod number (pod abortion) is where loss occurs. One variety from Mycogen with a dark hilum under heavy aphid pressure loses the dark hilum.

The 7th World Soybean Research Conference will be held in Brazil 29 Feb-5 March, 2004. Antonio Panizzi may be involved.

Hammond mentioned that Hogg had accepted an administrative position in Wisconsin and Herbert had accepted an appointment in Extension administration at VPI. Iowa State University has announced a vacant position in soybean entomology, which will be an applied position. It was mentioned that Hogg would need to be replaced on the technical committee. Bledsoe indicated that C. R. Edwards plans to retire from Purdue at the end of the fiscal year.

ONeil commented on the Biocontrol work that has been done with the soybean aphid in Asia.

Hammond discussed the termination report of S-281. It is to be submitted within 60 days. A draft of the termination report is contained on pp. 3-20 of the printed report. Hammond requested that changes be made within two weeks. If there are publication changes, those should be submitted also within the two-week period.

Objective Discussion

Objective 1

Objective 1a. NE saw low SBA numbers during 2002. Higley (NE) conducted physiological stress studies. SBA reduces photosynthetic rates at low infestation rates. The overwintering host buckthorn is common in river and creek bottoms. MN found that the minimum temperature for SBA is 45 degrees. SBA reduced pods/node; oil was reduced, seed was 22% larger and the black hilum was not formed on a Mycogen 200 MG II variety. Lorsban and dimethoate gave poor control; Asana and Warrior gave the best control. The threshold reported is 3000 aphid days. SBA does not like hot temperatures. The number of offspring at 77, 81 and 86 degrees was 30, 40 and 10 respectively. Ragsdale (MN) thought row spacing impacted populations. Bledsoe (IN) reported a cool, wet spring, which resulted in late planting which possibly, affected SBA numbers. Studies were attempted with little success; plans are to use a split field this year. IN will continue the insecticide work and variety evaluations. ONeil (IN) reported that buckthorn is now leafing. Survival of fundatrices is poor at 29 degrees. He is now looking at buckthorn distributions, even into the south. Predators at low numbers early can impact populations. He is investigating aphid thresholds. In Japan, SBA has low populations and it does reproduce there at high numbers in high temperatures. Helm (IL) reported low numbers in 2002. The suction trap network will monitor populations throughout IL. Hartman of the USDA is conducting HPR work. He has 15-18 lines which show some resistance. These lines have high levels of pubescence. Root-knot nematode resistant lines have SBA resistance. Many have high pubescence. Glogoza (ND) reported yellowing and stunting in the first GPS to identify locations. Shelterbelts are reported to favor aphids. Shelterbelts do not have to have buckthorn present. MN sees SBA higher near shelterbelts. KS first found SBA 20 Aug 2002 (see handout). Research found there was no chlorophyll loss, but Higley found photosynthesis rate was lowered. Cages were not needed for the research since the aphids do not move. Glogoza indicated there could be a major impact, even when SBA is at low numbers. Ragsdale indicated that aphid age might be more impacting.

Objective 1b. MN evaluated both the F1 and F2 models. IN validated the overwintering model. ND hopes the F2 generation will be reduced.

Objective 1c. LA evaluated Bt soybean since 1998. The last two years MG V entries have been examined. It gave good control of lepidoptera (soybean looper and velvetbean caterpillar.) GA had similar results. Bledsoe (IN) reported that saturated soils reduce bean leaf beetle and rootworm larvae. On threshold research, MN reported that the SBA populations can double every 2 days. A rating scale does not work. Individuals were referred to results posted on the web. ND picks a trifoliolate near the top for population estimates. They use a rating scale or the trifoliolate leaf.

Objective 2. Hammond (OH) indicated that this objective ties to subobjective 1b. He indicated there was less virus movement in resistant varieties. NE sees infestations of BLB on the first 25% of the early-planted soybeans. IL will evaluate both seed treatments and Warrior for BLB control. IA (Krell) evaluated foliar applications. Bradshaw indicated that the seed treatments plus the foliar spray reduces BLB. Events that affect larval populations include such things as a 10-inch rain in northwest IA that caused the population to crash. Bradshaw feels that the seed treatments will work. IA will continue investigating the effects of pubescence on BLB feeding. Seed treatments will be compared to pyrethroid foliar applications. R. Cloyd of IL was a student at Purdue with Edwards about 5 years ago when he examined trichomes in a series of lines for their impact on BLB feeding. The work was published in the IN Academy of Science proceedings. Bradshaw raised a question of the impact of pyrethroids on beneficials. Boethel asked about the impact of bean pod mottle virus (BPMV) on yield. TN reported the impact of ESPS on BLB numbers. Pitre (MS) continues to investigate BPMV (see report). In a date of planting study, more virus was observed. Early maturity groups planted early were most infested. Row spacing was investigated for virus suppression. It was recommended that an ELISA test be run to determine virus incidence. In MN, Ostlie will work on BLB. A pathologist has surveyed the state in 2001 and found BPMV only on experiment stations.

Objective 3. MN found that after SBA first colonized the field, that within 2 weeks, every plant was infested. The Russian wheat aphid parasite, Aphelinus albipodus, was evaluated. The parasite was released into the field at high and low rates. At the high release rate, the lowest number of aphids was collected and at the low rate, aphid numbers were highest. One confounding problem is that the buckthorn aphid may be collected from buckthorn. Voegtlin collected SBA in 12-meter suction traps. ONeil (IN) will be investigating fly predators in the family Chamaemyiidae. Among the endemic parasites, there are very few mummies. MN reported 5% of the SBA population was affected by pathogens. Very little was found in IN. Predators reported were lady beetles, carabids, Orius insidiosus, Nabis and Chrysopa in MN, MI and IN. ONeil and Landis will be modeling Orius. Two pathogens, Endora and Caneb look promising.

Objective 4. This objective deals with remote sensing and management of insects looking at NDVI. LA reported that stink bugs were the most abundant pest, with increasing populations of brown sting bug species. Pyrethroid insecticides were not very effective on the brown stink bug species. ND plotted the distribution of SBA over the field 9 July- Sept 2002.

The location of next years meeting was discussed. Since Mo Way has volunteered to host the meeting, the group proposed that San Antonio be considered for the March 7-9, 2004. Hammond will check with Way. The nominating committee proposed that Way serve as Chair for next year and that Hunt had consented to serve as Secretary. This proposal was acceptable to the technical committee.

Hammond requested that the group look over the annual report and the publication lists.

Reese mentioned that Kansas State has a website where translations of the Asian literature on SBA is available.

Boethel commented that the group might want to use the longer meeting next year to show more data. The group might also wish to consider an invited speaker, someone who is working in an area related to the project (virologist, etc.). The agenda might also be expanded to consider much of the seed treatment work that is planned for the 2003 season. Boethel and the group extended thanks to Hammond who worked diligently in the project rewrite and in hosting the meeting in Indianapolis. The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

The project has only been in existance since October, 2002, and has not yet had a summer of activity. Progress has so far only dealt with planning research to meet the various objectives. The annual meeting held on April 6, 2003, mostly dealt with those plans.

None at this time. Project just began.