Food and Wing Determination in Myzus persicae (Homoptera: Aphidae)

Myzus persicae larvae were fed from birth on either synthetic diet or radish cotyledons, in both cases through a parafilm membrane. The proportion of larvae developing into winged adults was thereby shown to be strongly affected by the food available to the larvae during their development, as distinct from the microenvironment at the feeding site. Subsequent experiments in which larvae were deposited and reared on pairs of synthetic diets, identical except for single amino acids, showed that single chemical differences in the food could bring about changes in the proportions of alatae to develop.