Resistance Among Lantana Cultivars to the Lantana Stick Caterpillar, Neogalea sunia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
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Lantana stick caterpillar, Neogalea sunia (Guene) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), can be a serious, often undetected pest of Lantana, a landscape plant commonly grown for its heat and drought hardiness across the southern United States. This insect is often responsible for loss of flowering by Lantana plants in late summer and early autumn. Replications of 22 cultivars of Lantana plants in containers were evaluated for resistance to the lantana stick caterpillar in a greenhouse at Dallas, TX. A natural infestation of the pest developed in mid-July and dispersed through all the plantings. Larvae were sampled during autumn 1996. Most larvae (2.4 to 4.1) per plant were on 'Lemon Swirl', 'New Gold', 'Golden King', 'LSG Red Orange', 'Dallas Red', 'Pink Caprice', 'Gold Mound', and 'Samantha'. No larvae were found on 'Weeping Lavender' or 'White Lightning' and only means of 0.1, 0.3, and 0.3 larva per plant were recorded on 'Imperial Purple', 'Weeping White', and 'Confetti', respectively. Additionally, 0.5 or fewer larva was found per plant of 'Patriot Fire Wagon' and 'Patriot Rainbow'. All four cultivars of L. montevidensis (K. Spreng.) Briq. (mean of 0.1 larva per plant) were very resistant, whereas all cultivars of L. camara L. (except Lemon Drop', mean of 0.8), and all L. hybrida hort were susceptible and exceeded one larva per plant. Cultivars with purple, white, or red/yellow flowers were infested with fewer larvae than were cultivars with gold, red, orange/red, yellow, or bicolors of yellow with another color other than red.
