ARS | Publication request: Attraction of pest moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Crambidae) to floral lures on the island of Hawaii

Submitted to: Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: December 20, 2011
Publication Date: December 28, 2011
Citation: Landolt, P.J., Jang, E.B., Carvalho, L.A., Pogue, M.G. 2011. Attraction of pest moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae, Crambidae) to floral lures on the island of Hawaii. Hawaiian Entomological Society Proceedings. 43:49-58.

Interpretive Summary: Noctuid moths, including loopers, armyworms and cutworms, cause economic damage to numerous vegetable crops, including potato. Chemical attractants are commonly used in traps to determining the presence and abundance of the adult moth stage of these insects, and might be useful in an attract and kill formulation to control populations on crops. Researchers at the USDA-ARS Yakima Agriculture Research Laboratory, Wapato, Washington, and the Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, Hilo, Hawaii, evaluated a set of chemicals from flowers as potential attractants for moths that are vegetable pests. They determined that green garden looper, bilobed looper, true armyworm, variegated cutworm, and beet webworm moths were attracted and trapped with combinations of phenylacetaldehyde, methyl salicylate, methyl-2-methoxy benzoate, beta-myrcene, and linalool. Floral chemicals were attractive to both males and females of these pest species. This information provides chemical lures that can be useful for monitoring of the female moths, and may have potential for development of baits or attract-and-kill technologies to control pest populations and prevent damage to crops.

Technical Abstract: Traps baited with floral chemicals on the island of Hawaii captured several pest moth species. Chrysodeixis eriosoma (Doubleday)(green garden looper), Autographa biloba (Doubleday)(bi-lobed looper), and Mythimna unipuncta (Haworth)(true armyworm), all Noctuidae, as well as Hymenia recurvalis (L.)(beet webworm), a Crambidae, were trapped with phenylacetaldehyde (PAA). There was no response by moths to beta-myrcene (BM), methyl salicylate (MS), cis jasmone (CJ), methyl-2-methoxy benzoate (MMB), 2-phenylethanol (2PE), or linalool (LIN) when these chemicals were tested singly. When other floral chemicals were presented in traps with PAA, numbers of C. eriosoma captured were increased by BM, MS, 2PE or MMB. Numbers of A. biloba and Peridroma saucia (Hubner)(variegated cutworm) were increased by adding BM with PAA in traps. Numbers of M. unipuncta were increased by BM or 2PE, and numbers of H. recurvalis were increased by MMB or LIN, presented with PAA. Both sexes of these five speciees of moths were trapped with floral lures, most females captured were mated, and many females possessed mature eggs.