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Resistance of two wild species of potato, Solanum berthaultei. and S.demissum to the larval feeding of the Colorado Potato Beetle (CPB) was investigated in the greenhouse at the university of Idaho, USA, to determine the resistance level. Percentage of leaf area consumed by the larvae and percentage of larval mortalities were used as the main criteria . It was found that the larval feeding in both wild species was significantly lower than the commercial potato and the larval mortalities was significantly higher in wild species. There was a high negative correlation between the leaf area consumed and larval mortalities (r -0.88), which indicated that anantibiosis mechanism may be involved in wild species resistance to the CPB.
Since glycoalkaloid level of these two species is lower than other wild potatoes, therefore it is suggested to use these species as the resistance gene source to breed CPB resistant commercial potatoes.