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Research Project: MANAGEMENT OF INSECT PESTS OF TEMPERATE TREE FRUIT CROPS

Location: Fruit and Vegetable Insect Research

Title: Identification of a Sex Attractant Pheromone for Male Winterform Pear Psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola

Authors
item Guedot, Christelle
item Millar, Jocelyn -
item Horton, David
item Landolt, Peter

Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 7, 2009
Publication Date: December 20, 2009
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/39324
Citation: Guedot, C.N., Millar, J.G., Horton, D.R., Landolt, P.J. 2009. Identification of a Sex Attractant Pheromone for Male Winterform Pear Psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola. Journal of Chemical Ecology. 35:1437-1447.

Interpretive Summary: Pear psylla is a major pest of commercial pears in North America and Europe. Monitoring methods are needed for growers to use to determine the need for control measures. Scientists at the USDA-ARS in Yakima compared the chemical profiles of whole-body washes from male and female winterforms and identified a female-produced sex attractant pheromone that is attractive to males and not to females. This study provides evidence through chemical analyses, behavioral bioassays, and a field experiment that 13-methylheptacosane is a sex attractant pheromone for C. pyricola winterform males. This is the first identification of a sex pheromone in the Psyllidae. This sex attractant pheromone could be developed as a lure for eventual use in monitoring and pest management.

Technical Abstract: Pear psylla, Cacopsylla pyricola (Förster) (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), a major economic pest of pears, have been shown to use a female-produced sex attractant pheromone. We compared the chemical profiles obtained from cuticular extracts of diapausing and post-diapause winterform males and females, with goals to isolate and identify the pheromone. Post-diapause females produced significantly more of the cuticular hydrocarbon 13-methylheptacosane than post-diapause males and diapausing females. In olfactometer assays, males were attracted to synthetic racemic 13-methylheptacosane whereas females were not, indicating that the behavioral response to this chemical is sex-specific. Furthermore, 13-methylheptacosane was as attractive to males as a cuticular extract of females, suggesting that this chemical was largely responsible for the female attractiveness. A field trapping study showed that males but not females were attracted to 13-methylheptacosane, confirming the olfactometer results. This study provides evidence through chemical analyses, behavioral bioassays, and a field experiment that 13-methylheptacosane is a sex attractant pheromone for C. pyricola winterform males. This is the first identification of a sex pheromone in the Psyllidae. Our results open the path to developing monitoring tools, and possibly new strategies for integrated pest management of this insect.

   

 
Project Team
Landolt, Peter
Garczynski, Stephen
Yee, Wee
Knight, Alan
Neven, Lisa
Horton, David
Unruh, Thomas
 
Publications
   Publications
 
Related National Programs
  Crop Protection & Quarantine (304)
 
 
Last Modified: 05/18/2013
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