Host-Plant Resistance to Spittlebugs: A Life-Table Study With Mahanarva fimbriolata (Hemipera: Cercopidae) in Sugarcane Genotypes.

Understanding how host-crop genotypes affect the life history of insect pests is important for developing and using varietal resistance as a pest control measure. Here we determined how wild and cultivated sugarcane genotypes affect key life-history traits and the demographic performance of the root spittlebug, Mahanarva fimbriolata (Stål; Hemiptera: Cercopidae), a major pest of sugarcane, which produces most of the world's sugar and bioethanol. In the greenhouse, plants of four sugarcane genotypes (two wild and two cultivated) were infested with newly-ecloded spittlebug nymphs.