FEEDING NON-PREFERENCE OF THE CORN LEAF APHID Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch, 1856) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) TO CORN PLANTS (Zea mays L.) TREATED WITH SILICON

A tactic for control to corn leaf Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch, 1856) would be the use of resistant materials, but, for not being a key pest of the crop, there are not yet corn genotypes availables with those characteristics. So, it was aimed in this work to evaluate the effect of silicon on the aphid's development on corn plants. Preference tests with leaves detached from the plants and on corn plants were accomplished. Its was found that the treatments where silicon was applied to the soil plus a foliar sprayed fertilization or through two foliar applications were the ones which contained a lower number of aphids, increasing the resistance of leaves and making the feeding of those insects difficult. In general, the results showed that silicon affected the leaf aphid's preference.