Host plant selection, inheritance of food preference, and potentialities of ecological-genetic differentiation in the southern cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus (Coleoptera, Bruchidae)

摘要

The inheritance of food preference and differentiation ability in a laboratory population of cowpea weevil were studied using two types of selection on seeds of two host plants - cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and chick pea (Cicer arietinum). The mass selection of progeny (6 generations) on different seeds turned out inefficient. The individual selection in families with strong inbreeding for 10 generations was highly effective begining from the second generation. The analysis of interstrain crosses hasrevealed a high degree of food preference inheritance probably of polygenic determination with partial dominance effect. The cowpea weevil populations have-both a sufficient genetic potential of variability by food preference and a weak differentiationdue to an intensive gene flow.