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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Crop Bioprotection Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #297481

Title: Behavioral responses of lesser mealworm beetles, alphitobius diaperinus, (coleoptera: tenebrionidae) to pheromone components using a wind tunnel dual choice walkign bioassay

Author
item Cosse, Allard
item Zilkowski, Bruce

Submitted to: Journal of Insect Behavior
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/4/2015
Publication Date: 3/15/2015
Publication URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10905-015-9493-5
Citation: Cosse, A.A., Zilkowski, B.W. 2015. Behavioral responses of lesser mealworm beetles, alphitobius diaperinus, (coleoptera: tenebrionidae) to pheromone components using a wind tunnel dual choice walking bioassay. Journal of Insect Behavior. 28(2):202-210.

Interpretive Summary: The Lesser Mealworm beetle is a serious insect pest in poultry facilities worldwide, including the US. Over time this insect has developed resistance to conventional insecticides and new methods of control are needed. Natural environmental friendly pheromone-based tools have been successfully used with other beetle pests. Therefore we have investigated the natural pheromone of this beetle and report in this published research that there are three behavioral important compounds that comprise the pheromone of this beetle. In addition, we developed an assay that can be used by fellow researchers to quickly screen compounds as attractants of walking insect pests.

Technical Abstract: The lesser mealworm beetle (LMW), Alphitobius diaperinus (Panzer), is a serious pest in poultry production facilities world-wide and is difficult to control by conventional means. Pheromone-based tools might become useful in the management of this species. Male LMW emit a five-component pheromone consisting of, (R)-(+)-limonene, (E)-ß-ocimene, (S)-(+)-linalool, (R)-(+)-daucene, and 2-nonanone. However, it was not yet known whether all five compounds were required for pheromone behavioral activity. We developed a new dual choice wind tunnel walking bioassay to test the attraction male and female adult beetles to individual pheromone components and their blends. We tested hundreds of male and female adults at the same time to create a high throughput bioassay, which demonstrated that only three compounds, (E)-ß-ocimene, (R)-(+)-daucene, and 2-nonanone, are necessary to exhibit the pheromone behavioral activity of the naturally emitted blend. Randomly roaming males and females responded by forming “conga lines” while walking up to a source of attractive odor.