ARS | Publication request: Response to host plant odors and aggregation pheromone by larvae of the Colorado potato beetle on a servosphere

Submitted to: Arthropod-Plant Interactions
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: February 22, 2007
Publication Date: March 21, 2007
Citation: Hammock, J.A., Vinyard, B., Dickens, J.C. 2007. Response to host plant odors and aggregation pheromone by larvae of the Colorado potato beetle on a servosphere. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 1:7-35.

Interpretive Summary: Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is a global pest of potatoes, tomatoes and other crops. As CPB has rapidly developed resistance to insecticides used to control it, alternative control measures are desperately needed. Attractants identified by us offer alternative tools for CPB management and could be utilized in trap crop strategies, survey and detection for timing of pesticide applications, or to enhance specificity of various control measures. Here we show that immature stages of CPB respond to both a host plant attractant and an aggregation pheromone produced by adult beetles. This is the first time an immature insect is shown to respond in this fashion. This information can be used by behaviorists and neurobiologists to further investigate receptors and mechanisms used by larvae of CPB and perhaps other insects, as well as entomologists developing management strategies for CPB control.

Technical Abstract: Using a servosphere (locomotion compensator), locomotory behaviour of Colorado potato beetle larvae was measured in detail in response to pulsed and non-pulsed odors of hostplant and conspecific pheromone. Second instar larvae showed decreased Straightness of movement, and all larvae showed decreased speed, in response to potato odor. Change in Straightness by 2nd instar larvae was also significantly affected by the interaction of pheromone and pulsing treatments. Fourth instar larvae showed increased positive anemotaxis in response to the combined hostplant and pheromone odors. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of larval behavioral responses to adult pheromone in a holometabolous insect.