Hollow-fibre, laminate-flake and microencapsulated formulations of the synthetic sex pheromone (a 1:1 mixture of (Z,Z)-and (Z,£)-7,ll-hexadecadienyl acetate) of Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) were compared in large-scale mating disruption trials in Egypt in 1982. Fifty-hectare blocks of cotton were treated at regular intervals throughout the season with the formulated pheromone as the sole means of controlling the pest. The pheromone treatments were compared with conventional insecticide spray treatments in other 50-ha blocks of cotton sited in the same localities. Comparisons of numbers of infested flowers and green bolls, open boll counts, crop development, yield of seed cotton, lint quality and seed damage in pheromone-and insecticide-treated blocks, showed that adequate levels of control were achieved using the pheromone formulations, which were equal in effect to the insecticide sprays. Beneficial insects were found in greater numbers in the pheromone-treated areas than in areas treated with insecticides.

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A fast and simple method of preparing virgin females of Spodoptera littoralis (Boisd.) for exposure in the field is described. Low predation rates were achieved by tethering the moths on a short (20 cm) piece of cotton thread directly to the plants and by keeping unnecessary daytime exposure to a minimum. Consistently high levels of successful mating were recorded in both berseem and cotton fields in Egypt, suggesting the suitability of the tethering technique for measuring reduction of mating levels in pheromone control trials.

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