Abstract: With laboratory trial and field investigation, this paper studied the epidemic dynamics of maize wallaby ear disease (MWED) transmitted by Cicadulina bipunctella, and assessed the maize damage caused by the disease. The results showed that the maize plants infected by MWED did not show any obvious symptoms at 16 ℃, and the shortest latent period of MWED was 4.85 and 4.64 days at 28 ℃ and 31 ℃, respectively. At high, medium, and low altitudes, the oc-currence and development of MWED were all closely related to the developing dynamics of vector leafhoppers. The disease index increased with increasing density of vector leafhoppers, and reached its maximum (5.75, 10.97 and 9.09, respectively) from the last ten days of May to the first ten days of June. The maize plant height, stem diameter, ear length, ear width, kernel number and weight per ear, and 1 000 kernels weight decreased with increasing disease rank. The path analysis of binary linear regression equation on the loss of kernel weight per ear showed that the decrease of 1 000 kernels weight was the main factor of yield loss in the components of maize output.

Key words: Acer truncatum, Flushing method, Hydraulic character