ABSTRACT

The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, is a serious pest throughout the Cotton Belt and is difficult to control by insecticides. Neozygites fresenii (Nowakowski), an obligatory fungus infects cotton aphid populations in the Mid-South. Cotton aphid populations usually begin to decline when the fungal infected aphid population reaches 15% and above. The timely identification of such fungal epizootics would aid the growers in making pesticide application decisions. Agdia, Inc. has developed a rapid and simple to use antigen coated plate enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ACP-ELISA) for the detection of fungal-infected cotton aphid.