Observations and Experiments on Stem Eelworm, Ditylenchus dipsaci (Kühn, 1857) Filipjev, 1936, with Special Reference to Weed Hosts

Abstract

It is well known that certain weeds can act as alternative hosts for some races of stem eelworm, thereby tending to defeat the objects of crop rotation. During the course of advisory work in this province, collections of weeds have been made from various sites where stem eelworm attacks were known to have occurred, with a view to discovering which ones were likely to act as bridging hosts.While it is fully realised that the presence of D. dipsaci in a weed growing amongst a crop infested with this eelworm does not prove that the eelworms are of the same biologic race, it is felt that observations of this kind are a valuable and necessary preliminary to host transference experiments.