Responses of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) Cultivars to bean flies (diptera: agromyzidae)

Abstract

uniform. beanfly infestation of sufficient level to which the cultivars were subjected during the growing period. However, natural populations of beanfly on beans planted in a• single planting in the late part of the cropping season or the beginning of noncropping season was sufficient to cause observable damage symptoms, which could be reliably used as parameters for resistance. successive plantings of bean cultivars in the middle part of cropping season could also produce a beanfly population sufficiently high for screening purposes. Under moderate field infestation, determination of percent plant mortality due to Q. spencerella, stem damage scores due to o. phaseoli and the number of pupae/puparia were more reliable indices of resistance/susceptibilty than the number of beanfly leaf punctures, eggs or larvae as parameters for resistance measurement.