Bioactivity of Cereal- and Legume-Based Macaroni Pasta Volatiles to Adult Sitophilus granarius (L.)

Abstract

The attractiveness of ten commercially available Italian macaroni pastas made from different cereals [Triticum durum; Triticum durum (whole wheat); Triticum dicoccum; mixture of five cereals; Triticum turgidum; Triticum turanicum] or legumes (Cicer arietinum; Lens culinaris; Pisum sativum; Vicia faba) to Sitophilus granarius, was compared. S. granarius adults were more attracted to cereal pastas than legume pastas, but the differences in attractiveness were not always significant. Consistent with the results of behavioural bioassays, the mortality of adults over 20 days exposed to pasta samples was 100% with the legume pasta samples and only 8% with the T. turanicum pasta. GC-MS analysis of HS-SPME extracts from the different pasta samples highlighted marked qualitative and quantitative differences, with aliphatic aldehydes and aliphatic alcohols being the most abundant volatile components of cereal- and legume-pastas, respectively. In two-choice behavioural bioassays, insect attraction to a 1:1 combination of T. turanicum and C. arietinum pastas (80%) was even higher than that observed in T. turanicum pasta alone (64%) and in C. arietinum pasta alone (20%). This strongly suggested that the low attractiveness of legume pasta is mainly due to the lack of attractant stimuli rather than emission of repellent compounds.

Attraction of Sitophilus oryzae (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to the semiochemical volatiles of stored rice materials

“…Hexanal is commonly used as an indicator of lipid oxidation in cereals (Piggot et al 1991), and its production increases over time in stored native oats (Heiniö et al 2002) and raw oat flour (Molteberg et al 1996). It is the main VOC released by cereal-based macaroni pasta (Trematerra et al 2021), which has been reported as an attractant for some important secondary pests of processed cereals, such as O. surinamensis and the merchant grain beetle Oryzaephilus mercator (Fauvel) (Coleoptera: Silvanidae) (Pierce et al 1990). This compound was found to exert a strong repellent effect against the adults of the granary weevil, Sitophilus granarius (L.) (Germinara et al 2008) and even to inhibit their olfactory orientation towards wheat grains, a highly attractive food source for this species (Germinara et al 2015).…”

Olfactory Preferences of Sitophilus zeamais to Cereal- and Legume-Based Pasta

“…Following the experimental design reported in Trematerra et al (2021) [ 6 ], 12 replications (100 S. zeamais adults released at the centre of the arena) were performed, using a total of 1200 insects used once. The number of trapped insects was checked 7 days after their introduction into the arena.…”

“…For each experiment, 5 replications were performed. In each trial, a response index (RI) was calculated following Trematerra et al (2021) [ 6 ].…”

“…As is already known, alimentary pasta can be infested by several insects (Lepidoptera and Coleoptera), leading to high levels of economic damage. Infestations can occur from product production to use (e.g., storage processes in industries, shipment, warehouses, general stores and retail shops, and the consumer’s house) [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…In the present work, we continue our research related to the relationships between Sitophilus spp. and different types of pasta [ 4 , 6 ]. Because the olfactory sense in S. zeamais plays an important role in the infestation of a food in response to food odours, we investigated, in an olfactometric arena, the responses of adult maize weevils to five categories of macaroni pasta (100% Triticum durum pasta; 100% Cicer arietinum pasta; 100% Lens esculenta pasta; 50% Triticum durum + 50% Cicer arietinum pasta; 60% Triticum durum + 40% Lens esculenta pasta) in order to evaluate the effect of odours emitted by the different pasta products on insect behaviour.…”