Alfalfa looper

Baculoviruses are generally named after the insect from which they were first isolated. For example, Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) was isolated initially from codling moth larvae and Anagrapha falcifera nuclear polyhedrovirus (AfNPV) was isolated from the alfalfa looper. This nomenclature is now widely accepted but it often conceals the number of insects that can be infected and the preferred insect host of the virus. 

The quantity and quality of food in the diet on which insects are reared may affect their size and survival capacity. Variegated cutworm larvae fed peppermint leaves were more tolerant of the insecticides carbaryl, acephate, methomyl, and malathion than larvae fed snap bean leaves. Increased tolerance for carbaryl and methomyl was also observed in larvae of the alfalfa looper and cabbage looper when they were fed peppermint plants instead of their favored host plants alfalfa and broccoli. Furthermore, fall armyworm larvae fed corn leaves became less susceptible to the insecticides methomyl, acephate, methamido-phos, diazinon, trichlorfon, monocrotophos, permethrin, and cypermethrin than those fed soybean leaves. Although nutrition may play some role in these cases, it was found that enhanced insecticide tolerance caused by these host plants was mainly due to plant allelochemicals, which induced detoxification enzymes in the insects (Yu, 1986). 

The model NPV system is an isolate from the alfalfa looper, Autographa californica and, in conjunction with Lepidopteran cell culture, makes an excellent laboratory system. In cell culture, the NOV is he exclusive infectious form PIBs play no role. After infection, the nucleocapsid makes its way to the nucleus, where replication begins. The initial steps in the viral replication cycle are performed by cellular factors,... 

Males of the variegated leafroller moth, Platynota flavedana, are attracted in greatest numbers in the field to a ratio of 84 16 of ( )-ll-tetradecen-l-ol to (Z)-ll-tetradecen-l-ol (297). Female tip extracts contain these two alcohols in a 9 1 ratio ( Z) as well as the corresponding acetates but the acetates do not appear to be used as pheromones. Trap catches of the alfalfa looper, Autographa californica, are greatly increased by the addition of (Z)-7-dodecen-l-ol formate to (Z)-7-dodecen-l-ol acetate 298), its proposed sex pheromone (299). It is not known whether the formate ester is an actual component of the natural pheromone. 

Butler, L. I., J. E. Halfhill, L. M. McDonough, and B. A. Butt Sex attractant of the alfalfa looper, Aurographa californica, and the celery looper, Anagrapha falcifera (Lepidoptera Noctuidae). J. Chem. Ecol. 3, 65—70 (1977). 

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