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Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia Esula) Genotype Affects Gall Midge (Spurgia Esulae) Establishment, Rodney G. Lym, Scott Nissen, Martha Rowe, Donald J. Lee, Robert A. Masters

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Greenhouse cage studies were conducted to determine the influence of shoot morphology and genetic variation on establishment of Spurgia sulae gall midge on seven leafy spurge genotypes. The genotypes were collected from South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Manitoba, and Austria. Genotypes from South Dakota and Nebraska were most susceptible to gall formation and had the highest larvae survival, while the genotypes from Montana and Manitoba were most resistant. Morphological characteristics of the leafy spurge stem tips, such as stem diameter leaf, length, width, and area did not correlate with gall formation or larvae survival. Chloroplast DNA restriction fragment …