The manner of transmission of some barley yellow-dwarf viruses by different aphid species

Some barley yellow-dwarf (BYD) viruses isolated from cereal crops in Great Britain were transmitted by Rhopalosiphum padi, L. and others were not. Sitobion fragariae (Walker), S. avenue (Fabricius), and Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) all transmitted viruses of both types, but they usually transmitted those of which Rhopalosiphum was a vector less readily than did R. padi. The transmissibility of a virus by a given aphid species was not affected by transmission with another, less efficient, vector species. Neomyzus circumflexus (Buckt.) and Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch) transmitted the few viruses with which they were tested. A few R. padi acquired virus from infected leaves during 30 min. feeding and inoculated healthy seedlings during 15 min. feeding, but the minimum total time taken to acquire and transmit was 10 hr. and 32 hr. were needed for about half the aphids that were able to acquire and transmit virus to do so. This may indicate the existence of a short latent period of the virus in the vector, although the evidence is not conclusive. The times spent on infected plants influenced the results more than those spent on healthy ones; many transmissions occurred with short feeding times on healthy plants so long as the time spent on infected leaves was long, but the reverse was not true. Nymphs of R. padi that moulted after they left infected plants on which they fed long enough to become infective, infected slightly fewer plants than adults fed for the same times.