FAILURE OF ANAESTHETIZED APHIDS TO ACQUIRE OR TRANSMIT HENBANE MOSAIC VIRUS WHEN THEIR STYLETS WERE ARTIFICIALLY INSERTED INTO LEAVES OF INFECTED OR HEALTHY TOBACCO PLANTS

Stylet-borne virus: active probing by aphids not required for acquisition

Anesthetized aphids, whose stylets had been dipped into capillaries containing purified concentrated cucumber mosaic virus, acquired the virus and, after recovery from the anesthetic, were able to transmit it in a low percentage of cases. Although this study does not eliminate active probing as a means of virus acquisition, experimentally, it clearly establishes passive contamination of aphid mouthparts as a method of virus acquisition.