A total of 44 species of grass, 12 species of broadleaf weeds, and 15 species of broadleaf crops were screened in the laboratory as possible hosts of the larvae of the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera LeConte. The larvae did not survive the 10-day test period on any of the broad lcaf species, but 18 grass species supported larvae for at least 10 days. In subsequent field tests, western corn rootworms were able to complete their immature stages on 13 of these 18 potential hosts, but corn was the most favorable host for larval development as indicated by the number and relative size of the beetles recovered. Viable eggs were obtained from females reared on all hosts except for the single unfertilized female obtained from barley.
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Branson et al. (1970) studied this question.