Behavioral Responses of MaleDiaphorina citri(Hemiptera: Liviidae) to Mating Communication Signals from Vibration Traps in Citrus (Sapindales: Rutaceae) Trees

Abstract

The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), vectors the bacterium causing citrus greening disease, which has devastated citrus production worldwide wherever it has been introduced. To help monitor and target D. citri populations in commercial groves, thereby facilitating more effective management of citrus greening disease, a prototype device has been developed that mimics D. citri female vibrational communication signals, attracting males to a trap. For this report, effects of the device on male D. citri searching behavior were assessed to consider potential improvements in field applications. Forty-five percent of the males that searched towards the female signal mimic reached the source. In addition, the mean latencies before the initiation of calling and searching responses by males that reached the source were significantly lower than for those that missed, which suggests that trapping efficiency is strongly influenced by variability in male responsiveness to searching cues. Consequently, it is likely that the trapping efficiency of vibration traps could be increased further if they were modified to make use of additional cues strongly attractive to males, such as citrus flush olfactory and visual cues.

Vibrational communication and mating behavior of the meadow spittlebug Philaenus spumarius

“…Besides mating disruption, vibrational signals could be exploited as lures to attract the target insect into a trap. For example, this approach is driving the development of vibrational traps for the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Mazzoni et al 2017b) and Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hartman et al 2017). In summary, the rapid and encouraging improvements in this field permit scientists to explore the use of vibrational signal playback as a novel tool for pest control.…”

The Development and Evaluation of Insect Traps for the Asian Citrus Psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), Vector of Citrus Huanglongbing

“…Such effective attractants are not known for ACPs. Other insect attractants that may increase capture rates include semiochemicals [ 50 ], lighting [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ] auditory devices [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. Despite research to find odorants attractive to ACP adults [ 60 , 61 ], there are still no effective semiochemicals for luring ACP adults in field population studies.…”