The Feeding and Reproductive Behavior of Global Haplotypes of Sugarcane Aphid [Melanaphis Sacchari (ZEHNTNER) (Aphididae]

Within the past few years in both Southern United States and Northern Mexico the overall occurrence of the Sugarcane Aphid [Melanaphis sacchari (Zethner, 1897) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)] (SCA) on sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) has rapidly increased. Initially reported in the U.S. occupying sugarcane and various wild hosts in Hawaii in the late 1940’s (Zimmerman, 1948), SCA later spread to continental U.S and was first discovered in Florida at Belle Grade on Saccharum officinarum L. in 1977 (Mead, 1978; Summers, 1978; Denmark, 1988) and then found on sugarcane in Louisiana in 1999 (White, 2000). By fall of 2013 SCA were reported on Sorghum bicolor in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico (Villanueva et al., 2014; Rodríguez-del-Bosque, 2015).  By 2015, M. sacchari had quickly spread to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia and California.  It has been theorized that somewhere within the U.S. Gulf Coast Prairie region SCA abruptly shifted hosts from sugarcane to sorghum. Since 2013 the U.S. has reported a harvest loss of 50-75% each year due to the SCA. SCA has become a serious nuisance in sorghum fields, recognition and characterization of this emerging pest is needed in order to effectively manage SCA populations.