Landscape-Scale Consequences of Nutritional Variation for the Management of Helicoverpa Zea in Corn and Cotton across the Growing Season.

We have previously shown that variation among host plants in nutritional quality affects Helicoverpa zea susceptibility to a common Bt toxin used for its control. Recently, we have expanded this work to show that nutritional variation also affects H. zea susceptibility to a nuclear polyhedral virus (NPV) used as a biological control agent. When considered at the landscape scale across the growing season, our results illustrate that corn and cotton are very different nutritional resources with different consequences for the evolution of resistance and outcome of biological control.