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Mediterranean Fruit Fly
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Return to mapMediterranean Fruit Fly
Mediterranean fruit fly, (Diptera: Tephritidae Ceratitis capitata)

Various true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) more or less continuously invade the U.S. mainland and threaten our fruit industry. Foremost among these pests is the Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata, for which ~200,000 attractant-baited traps a year are deployed in California alone for early detection of invaders.

For more than 35 years, trimedlure, a mixture of sixteen regio- and stereoisomers of tert-butyl esters of 4- and 5-chloro-2-methylcyclohexane-1-carboxylate has been widely used as an attractant to monitor and detect male (but not female) medflies. (-)-Ceralure B1, (ethyl (1R,2R,5R)-5-iodo-2-methylcyclohexane-1-carboxylate), an analog of trimedlure has been synthesized in a highly regio- and stereoselective manner. This unique nine step synthesis generates (-)-ceralure B1 on a multi-gram scale in 15% overall yield. Preliminary estimates suggest that this compound is at least 7-10 times more active than trimedlure. To our knowledge this molecule is by far the most potent attractant for the medfly thus far reported-a level of activity that may make (-)-ceralure B1 useful for eradication of medfly incursions by male annihilation.