The production of pheromone clouds by spraying in the melon fly,Dacus cucurbitae coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Abstract

Abstract-Pheromone clouds sprayed by melon fly males were visually detected by focusing a beam of light at them during dusk when the males were vibrating their wings. The clouds were sprayed to the front, rear and upper sides of the male. We found that special morphological structures are used for spraying the pheromone clouds. When a male melon fly engages in calling behavior, sex pheromone droplets are excreted from his anus. This excretion is wiped off with the tarsus of his hind leg, and then it is deposited on the sexually dimorphic cubital cell hairs on the wing. During wing vibration, the targal bristles on the 3rd abdominal segment, which are peculiar to males, are rubbed against the specialized hairs of the cubital cell. Calling males sprayed clouds of pheromone with these actions.

Female sexual response to male rectal volatile constituents in the fruit fly, Bactrocera carambolae (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Examination of the volatiles emitted by live B. carambolae males not only revealed that these endogenous compounds were released into the air unchanged, but also coincided with courtship and mating periods of B. carambolae, which is at dusk. The release of sex pheromone by males to attract conspecific females is common in many species of tephritids including the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Féron, 1959), the Carribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew) (Nation, 1972), the apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh) (Prokopy, 1975) and in several other Bactrocera species (Kuba and Sokei, 1988;Kuba, 1991).…”

“…means of pheromone dispersal in most Bactrocera spp. (Kuba and Sokei, 1988), followed by mounting attempts onto other males in close proximity. Subsequently, with a further decrease in light intensity (300-600 lx), the number of males engaging in wing fanning activity increased (ϳ80%) and a whitish smoke was visible within the glass chamber.…”

“…The syringe driver provided a simple control-released system for chemical dispensing during the 10-min assay thus giving a relative rather than an absolute release rate of the chemical (Khoo et al, 2000). Since Bactrocera species emit their sex pheromone in the form of 'mist spray' (Kuba and Sokei, 1988), there would be a difference in terms of density and state of the pheromone released by live males as well as vaporization of compound from an impregnated filter paper. The relative release rates for 6-oxo-1-nonanol and N-3-methylbutyl acetamide were at 16.7 mg/10 min and 0.5 mg/10 min, respectively.…”

Effects of methyl eugenol and raspberry ketone/cue lure on the sexual behavior of Bactrocera species (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Nishida (1988a) and found DMP and CF in the rectal gland of B. dorsalis males 6 d and as long as 20 d, respectively, after ingesting ME, indicating the capability for long-term retention of these chemicals. Importantly, ME metabolites have been detected in male volatile emissions (the pheromone "smoke" produced by Bactrocera males, Ohinata et al, 1982;Kuba and Sokei, 1988), DMP in the spray of B. dorsalis (Nishida et al, 1988a) and B. papayae and CF in the spray of B. carambolae . In addition, females have been shown to be attracted to the ME derivatives presented either singly or in a blend (Tan and Nishida, 1996;Nishida et al, 1997;Hee and Tan, 1998;.…”

Mating time and call frequency of males between mass-reared and wild strains of melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) (Diptera: Tephritidae)

“…Males of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), form leks on non-host plants at dusk (Iwahashi and Majima, 1986) and court females by emitting a sex pheromone by vibrating their wings (calling) (Kuba and Koyama, 1985;Kuba and Sokei, 1988). An attracted female approaches the male and copulates with the male (Kuba and Koyama, 1985).…”