We evaluated olfactory attraction of overwintered male and female plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), adults to volatiles released from same or opposite sex conspecifics alone, synthetic male-produced pheromone (grandisoic acid) alone, wild plums alone, or combinations of live single-sex conspecifics or grandisoic acid with plums in large still-air arenas. Male plum curculios were most strongly attracted to volatiles released from females feeding on plums and to volatiles from mechanically punctured plums, which induced male copulations. Males were not attracted to volatiles from grouped males alone or a single male alone or synthetic grandisoic acid alone, and were just as attracted to odor of plums alone as to any of these stimuli in combination with plums, indicating either lack of enhancement of attraction to host plum odor by male-produced odors or synthetic grandisoic acid or lack of production or release of male-produced odors or problematic release of synthetic grandisoic acid. Females were attracted to odor of females alone, males alone, and synthetic grandisoic acid alone, but these attraction responses were not evident when plum odor was present (especially volatiles released from punctured plums), indicating the primary importance of host plum odor and potential influence of amount of male-produced odor in attraction of females. We concluded that female plum curculios may produce an odor attractive to male plum curculios, and both sexes produce an odor attractive to female plum curculios but in general, both male and female plum curculios were strongly attracted to host plum volatiles and only mildly attracted to conspecific odors or synthetic grandisoic acid under the conditions of our tests. We believe that attractive volatiles released from punctured plums should be used as source material to identify potential attractants for plum curculios.
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1 March 2001
Adult Plum Curculio (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Attraction to Fruit and Conspecific Odors
Tracy C. Leskey,
Ronald J. Prokopy
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Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Vol. 94 • No. 2
March 2001
Vol. 94 • No. 2
March 2001
Conotrachelus nenuphar
host-plant volatiles
pheromones