Investigations of the Host Range of the Corn Cyst Nematode, Heterodera zeae, from Maryland.

The host range of the corn cyst nematode, Heterodera zeae, recently detected in Maryland, was investigated. A total of 269 plant entries, representing 68 families, 172 genera, and 204 species, was inoculated with cysts or a mixture of eggs and second-stage juveniles of H. zeae. The host range of the Maryland population of H. zeae was limited to plants of the Gramineae and included 11 tribes, 33 genera, 42 species, and 77 entries. All 22 corn (Zea mays) cultivars tested were hosts. Other economic hosts included certain cultivars of barley (Hordeum vulgare), oat (Arena sativa), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), sugar cane (Saccharum interspecific hybrid), and wheat (Triticum aestivum). Fall panicum (Panicum dichotomiflorum), a weed species common to cultivated fields in Maryland, was also a host for H. zeae. Other hosts included meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), Calamagrostis eipgeios, Job's tears (Coix Lachryma-Jobi), green sprangletop (Leptochloa dubia), witchgrass (Panicum capillare), broomcorn (Panicum miliaceum), fountain grass (Pennisetum rueppeli), reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea), common reed (Phragmites australis), eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides), corn (Zea mays), and teosinte (Zea mexicana).