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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 #81800
Title: STRUCTURE ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS OF PHENYL ALKYL ALCOHOLS, PHENYL ALKYL AMINES, AND CINNAMYL ALCOHOL DERIVATIVES AS ATTRACTANTS FOR CORN ROOTWORM ADULTS (COLEOPTERA: CHRYSOMELIDAE)

Author
item Petroski, Richard
item Hammack, Leslie

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/12/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Because of growing concern regarding pesticide use and its effects on the environment, we are researching an environmentally friendly alternative to control the corn rootworm. Pesticide for corn rootworm control is often applied to soil at planting but does not reliably suppress pest populations and accounts for nearly 20% of insecticide use on U.S. field crops. We have tested traps baited with volatile compounds and have found that certain compounds lead the rootworms to the attractant source. Females of northern corn rootworms and western corn rootworms were more responsive than males. In the future, baited traps could attract the pests to a biological control agent. This information is useful to scientists involved in biological control research and should ultimately benefit farmers and consumers.

Technical Abstract: In field trapping tests, phenyl alkyl amines and phenyl alkyl alcohols with two-carbon side chains attracted significantly more adult females of the northern corn rootworm, Diabrotica barberi Smith and Lawrence, than phenyl alkyl amines or phenyl alkyl alcohols with one-, three-, or four-carbon side chains. Both sexes of northern corn rootworm were attracted to 2-phenyl-1 ethylamine in greater numbers than to 2-phenyl-1-ethanol whereas the latter was the better attractant in the case of western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, females. Differences in attractancy between the two compounds were attributed to differences in atomic charge; electrostatic charge was calculated to be -1.10 on the nitrogen atom in 2-phenyl-1 ethylamine but only -0.70 on the oxygen atom in 2-phenyl-1 ethanol. Northern corn rootworms responded in significantly greater numbers when the two compounds were blended than when a dose of either compound was increased ten fold. This observation does not support the idea that 2-phenyl-1-ethylamine substitutes for 2-phenyl-1-ethanol at a phenyl alkyl alcohol recognition site. In the case of cinnamyl alcohol derivatives, cinnamyl alcohol attracted the most northern corn rootworms, but cinnamaldehyde attracted the most western corn rootworms of both sexes. Of all compounds tested, male western corn rootworms responded to only cinnamaldehyde.