Leafhoppers and planthoppers are, next to aphids, among the most important vectors of plant viruses. Cicadellid vectors have historically been among the most difficult to discover because of the lapse of time between virus acquisition by the insects and transmission of the viruses to susceptible plants. In the 1880s and 1890s, plant pathologists and entomologists in Japan discovered the first vectors of plant viruses. Hirotaro Ando and Teikichi Fukushi were key figures in research on the rice dwarf virus and its leafhopper vector and published their seminal papers in 1910 and 1933-1939, respectively. In 1932-1933, British scientist Harold Haydon Storey published findings from his work in Africa on the maize streak virus and its leafhopper vector.

Viruses in Vectors: Transovarial Passage and Retention

Biography of Hirotaro Ando

On Rice Dwarf Disease, by Hirotaro Ando

Biography of Teikichi Fukushi

Transmission of the Virus Through the Eggs of an Insect Vector, by Teikichi Fukushi

Multiplication of Virus in Its Insect Vector, by Teikichi Fukushi

Retention of Virus by Its Insect Vectors Through Several Generations, by Teikichi Fukushi

Biography of Harold Haydon Storey

The Inheritance by an Insect Vector of the Ability to Transmit a Plant Virus, by Harold Haydon Storey

Investigations of the Mechanism of Transmission of Plant Viruses by Insect Vectors – I, by Harold Haydon Storey