The use of wheat culm solidness as a measure of resistance to the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Nort.., has repeatedly been questioned. This study critically evaluated the solidness-resistance relationship of six wheat selections, which by commonly used measuring techniques were similar in solidness but varied in their degrees of resistance. Using sawfly survival as the criterion for resistance, a definite relationship between culm solidness and sawfly resistance was found to exist. Consistently significant differences in culm solidness of the test selections were found, but were most apparent when cross-section solidness readings through the pith cavities in the tops of the internodes were included with readings from the centers of the internodes. Fertilization had very little influence on the culm solidness relationships of the selections studied. From the data it appears that with adequate sampling even minor differences in culm solidness can be shown to exert significant influence on sawfly resistance.
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O’Keeffe et al. (1960) studied this question.