Probing behavior of Aphis fabaeand Myzus persicaeon three species of grapevines with analysis of grapevine leaf anatomy and allelochemicals

AbstractThe peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae(Sulzer) and the black bean aphid Aphis fabaeScopoli are polyphagous and cosmopolitan hemipterans, therefore they can infest grapevines in all areas of cultivation. Electrical Penetration Graph (EPG) technique was applied to monitor the probing behavior of A. fabaeand M. persicaeon Vitis amurensisRupr., Vitis ripariaMichaux, and Vitis viniferaL. The content of major flavonoids and stilbenoids in grapevine leaves and epidermal thickness, distance between abaxial leaf surface and phloem, and the simulated shortest pathway from epidermis to phloem that might have affected aphid probing were also analyzed. Aphid probing was limited mainly to non-vascular tissues on the three studied grapevine species. Phloem phase occurred in 32%, 14%, and 6% of A. fabaeand in 76%, 39%, and 74% of M. persicaeon V. amurensis, V. ripariaand V. vinifera, respectively. Phloem phase consisted of only salivation into sieve elements and lasted less than 2.5 minutes on average in all aphids. The time to reach the first phloem phase on grapevines was 5.0 hours in A. fabaeand 2.6–3.6 hours in M. persicae. Of the analyzed flavonoids, catechin, epicatechin, and quercetin occurred in all grapevine species, while rutin – in V. amurensisand V. ripariaand isorhamnetin only in V. amurensis. Of the analyzed stilbenoids, piceid occurred in all grapevines, resveratrol in V. amurensisand V. vinifera, and ε-viniferin only in V. vinifera. Aphid behavior demonstrated that V. amurensis, V. ripariaand V. viniferaare not attractive host plants to A. fabaeand M. persicae. It is likely that the content of flavonoids and stilbenoids contributes to the limited susceptibility of the three grapevine species to A. fabaeand M. persicae, while the observed slight differences in the anatomical structure of the leaves seem not significant in this context.