The weevil Scyphophorus acupunctatus Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Cuculionidae) is the most important insect pest of wild and cultivated agaves worldwide. This weevil causes direct damage while feeding and egg laying on host plants, and indirect damage due to the wounds on agave tissue that may serve as an entry for plant pathogens. Sampling and control of this weevil is complicated because of its cryptic habits. Thus, the use of synthetic aggregation pheromone-baited traps may be a useful tool for monitoring or control of this pest. The attraction of agave weevil to pheromone traps is synergized by the presence of host plant tissue. In this study, we evaluated the effect of the amount of fresh agave tissue and bagging of the plant tissue on the capture of S. acupunctatus with pheromone-baited traps in a blue agave crop. The highest captures of weevils were obtained in traps baited with the synthetic pheromone plus 400 g of agave tissue. Weevil capture rate was increased when the food bait was placed into a plastic bag or plastic container with holes as compared with unbagged food bait.
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1 March 2018
Amount and Bagging of the Bait Food Affect the Captures of Scyphophorus acupunctatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) by Pheromone-Baited Traps
Pedro Figueroa-Castro,
Héctor González-Hernández,
José Luis Carrillo-Sánchez,
Juan Fernando Solís-Aguilar,
José Ignacio del Real-Laborde,
Ramón Rubio-Cortés,
Julio C. Rojas
Florida Entomologist
Vol. 101 • No. 1
March 2018
Vol. 101 • No. 1
March 2018
agave tequilero
agave tissue quantity
Blue agave
cantidad de tejido de agave
trampeo
trapping