ARS | Publication request: Field Attraction of Codling Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) to Apple and Pear Fruit, and Quantitation of Kairomones from Attractive Fruit

Submitted to: Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: January 17, 2008
Publication Date: April 10, 2008
Repository URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10113/17247
Citation: Landolt, P.J., Guedot, C.N. 2008. Field Attraction of Codling Moths (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) to Apple and Pear Fruit, and Quantitation of Kairomones from Attractive Fruit. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 101(3):675-681.

Interpretive Summary: New methods and approaches are needed to control the codling moth, which is the key pest of apple and pear in the Pacific Northwest. Chemical attractants are used in traps to determining the presence and abundance of codling moths and can also be used in association with a pesticide to attract and kill the insects, thereby reducing reproduction and populations. Researchers at the USDA-ARS laboratory in Wapato, Washington are investigating codling moth responses to fruit odor and fruit odor chemicals so as to discover new chemical attractants. They determined that both male and female codling moths are attracted in the field to immature apples and ripe apples, and to ripe pears. They found that codling moths are attracted most strongly to ripe fruit, and more strongly to ripe pears compared to ripe apples. The analysis of the odors of ripe apples and pears suggests that additional attractants remain to be identified from both types of fruit. This information should lead to the development of new and more powerful chemical attractants for female codling moths that can be used to monitor and control this pest on orchard and nut crops.

Technical Abstract: Male and female codling moths, Cydia pomonella (L.) responded in orchards to fruit placed within traps. Numbers of codling moths in traps baited with immature uninfested apples, immature apples infested with larval codling moth, ripe apples, and ripe pears were significantly greater than in un-baited traps. Preferences by moths were not seen for infested versus uninfested immature apples, or for immature infested versus ripe apples. However, more codling moths were attracted to ripe apples compared to immature uninfested apples, and ripe Bartlett pears were a stronger bait in traps compared to ripe Braeburn apples. Females captured in traps baited with ripe apples or pears were primarily mated and possessed developing or mature eggs. Volatile collections made from ripe Braeburn apples indicated strong emission of the codling moth kairomones 2-methylbutyl acetate, butyl hexanoate, hexyl hexanoate, and E,E-'-farnesene, and very small amounts of the kairomones R-limonene and E-'-farnesene. Volatile collections made from ripe Bartlett pears indicated strong emission of the codling moth kairomones butyl hexanoate, ethyl (E,Z) 2,4-decadienoate and E,E-'-farnesene, and very small amounts of the kairomones 2-methylbutyl acetate, hexyl hexanoate, '-caryophyllene, E-'-farnesene, and E,E-farnesol.