Project Number: 1245-22000-273-09
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Sep 01, 2011
End Date: Aug 31, 2016

Objective:
The objective of this project is to discover the structure and synthesize the pheromone of one the most important pest insects, the brown marmorated stink bug. This invasive species was first found in the U.S. in 2002, and has recently become a major agricultural and nuisance pest. Availability of a synthetic pheromone will help immensely in developing IPM strategies for this bug.

Approach:
IIBBL will identify sex-specific compounds from the brown marmorated stink bug that could serve as pheromone. One such compound, zingiberenol oxide, has already been found in males but the exact stereostructure of it remains unknown. ARS will synthesize all possible stereoisomers (total 16) of zingiberenol oxide to finalize the identification and make the compounds of interest available for bioassay that will be conducted by the USDA-ARS-North Atlantic Area.