The potential of stored-product beetle aggregation pheromones as cross-species attractants: an electroantennogram and behavioural investigation

摘要

Aggregation pheromones have been investigated as a source for a multispecies lure for Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Cryptolestes ferrugineus and Sitophilus granarius, using adult beetles that were generally 0-2 weeks old. S. granarius showed no significant electroantennogram (EAG) response to four macrolide lactones and R,S-1-octen-3-ol, at a single dose of 10 mu g, indicating that this species is unahle to perceive these compounds at the concentration tested. All three species showed an EAG responseto racemic sitophinone, although the perception threshold ranged from 10 mu g for S. granarius to 1000 mu g for O. surinamensis. The behavioural effect of racemic sitophinone (500 ng for S. granarius and 50 mu g for O. surinamensis and C. ferrugineus) and R,S-1-octen-3-ol (10 mu g) was investigated for all three species in pitfall bioassays. As expected, there was significant attraction of S. granarius to racemic sitophinone compared to the control but no response by this species to R,S-1-octen-3-ol. Neither O. surinamensis nor C. ferrugineus was attracted to racemic sitophinone or R,S-1-octen-3-ol in pitfall bioassays. An investigation of the effect of insect age on the response to R.S-1-octen-3-ol showed that 3-5 week old O. surinamensis had a lowerthreshold for behavioural response than 0-2 week old adults, but there was no significant difference in response to 1, 10 or 100 ng R,S-1-octen-3-ol compared to the control for C. ferrugineus for either 0-2 or 4-6 week old adults. The effect of R,S-1-octen-3-ol on O. surinamensis and C. ferrugineus requires further investigation to determine the reasons for the differences in response shown by different research groups. It is concluded that it is not possible to produce a multispecies lure for these three species based on racemic sitophinone and R,S-1-octen-3-ol.