Susceptibility of maize variants to Plodia interpunctella

The behavior of the Indian meal moth Plodia interpunctelLa on maize genotypes differing in embryo development, both on whole and longitudinally sectioned kernels, was studied. In the test with whole kernels, damage was very low or absent, and only viviparous mutants were significantly attacked. However, 100% damage was observed in all genotypes on longitudinally sectioned kernels. In this test, mutant seeds lacking embryos were less damaged and showed the lowest mean number of adult insects. These results indicate that larval penetration is influenced by the embryo properties and first shows that the employment of genetic variants is a valuable approach to study insect behavior and an opportunity to highlight maize genotypes with characteristics that can minimize quality reduction caused by insect attacks.