Attraction of female mediterranean fruit flies to the five major components of male-produced pheromone in a laboratory flight tunnel

Abstract

Attraction and pheromonal activity of five major identified components of the male-produced sex pheromone of the Mediterranean fruit flyCeratitis capitata to virgin laboratory-reared females was assessed in a laboratory flight tunnel. Dual-choice competitive assays were run to establish a baseline response of virgin females to live male pheromone, individual components, and an ensemble of all five compounds alone (air control) and competitively against one another. Approximately 50% of the females released in the tunnel were captured on leaf models emitting pheromonal odors from five live males. Over 37% of released females responded to an ensemble of five major identified components presented in individual capillaries. Response of females to individual components was less than 10%. Competitive assays showed the live male-produced pheromone to be more attractive than either the five major component ensemble (FMCE) or individual components. Further research is likely to identify other male-produced compounds with pheromonal activity that could improve development of a pheromone-based trap for monitoring Mediterranean fruit fly populations.

Sex Pheromone Investigation of Anastrepha serpentina (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…The presence of 2,5dm-3vp in addition to 2,6mvp in volatile collections from T. curvicauda males coincides with that reported with other fruit flies, where collections contained more than one compound (Heath et al 2000;Nation 2002). The qualitative differences or the complexity in the number of pheromonal components are key factors in attracting fruit fly females (Jang et al 1994;Heath et al 2000;Robacker et al 2009). …”

Uso de semioquímicos en el control de plagas. Estudios básicos y de aplicación

“…All the 37 compounds released by females were detected in mf9d whereas only 15 were detected in vf3d, 18 in vf9d and 26 in mf3d. which indicates that the amount of volatile compounds emitted by male medflies was considerably higher than females, as it was described by Jang et al (1994).…”

“…Later, Flath et al revised, in 1993, the composition of virgin male medfly volatiles, and the differences in abundance of the major compounds according to two factors: age and time of day. These reported works (Jang et al, 1989;Flath et al, 1993) agree with the three major components present in male samples: ethyl-(E)-3-octenoate, geranyl acetate and (E,E)-α-farnesene, and many efforts have been conducted to formulate these key compounds for field testing (Heath et al, 1991;Flath et al, 1993;.Jang et al, 1994;Jang et al, 1996;Light et al, 1999).…”

“…Estos últimos estudios coinciden en los tres componentes mayoritarios de las emisiones de machos vírgenes de C. capitata: (E)-3-octenoato de etilo, acetato de geranilo y (E,E)-α-farneseno. Se han realizado formulaciones de estos compuestos para su ensayo en campo (Heath et al, 1991;Flath et al, 1993;Jang et al, 1994;Light et al, 1999), pero no se ha conseguido una buena actividad atrayente con ellos. Es posible que la ausencia de alguno de los compuestos minoritarios, no incluidos en la mezcla, sea clave para conseguir un buen poder atrayente.…”

“…Por ejemplo, los tres compuestos mayoritarios descritos y ensayados anteriormente en otros trabajos (Heath et al, 1991;Jang et al, 1994), se sitúan en diferentes conjuntos: (E)-3-octenoato de etilo (conjunto E), acetato de geranilo (conjunto H), y (E,E)-α-farneseno (conjunto I 3 ). Además, el compuesto 1-pirrolina, citado como compuesto implicado en la atracción sexual (Baker et al, 1985), se sitúa también en el conjunto H. Sin embargo, el patrón de emisión de estos tres conjuntos (E, H, I 3 ) es muy similar y se caracteriza por tener muy baja emisión en el caso de machos jóvenes vírgenes.…”