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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Plant Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #70323
Title: PENTANOIC ACID ATTRACTS OLCELLA PARVA (ADAMS) (DIPTERA: CHLOROPIDAE) IN COLORADO CORN FIELDS

Author
item Hibbard, Bruce
item Jewett, Darryl
item BJOSTAD, L - COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Journal of Kansas Entomological Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/23/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: As part of a study attempting to identify attractants for adults of a major corn pest (the western corn rootworm), corn volatiles previously identified from corn silk as electroantennogram (EAG)-active for western corn rootworm adults were placed on yellow sticky traps in a Colorado corn field. The EAG measures the responses of neurons in the antennae of an insect to volatile compounds and compounds that are EAG-active are commonly behaviorally active. Western corn rootworm adults were not attracted to these traps, but females of a small Chloropid fly were attracted in large numbers (nearly 750 per trap). The corn silk volatiles that we tested may make it possible to learn more about the habits and distribution of these Chloropid flies. Also, the data may offer encouragement for similar studies and be of comparative value in research on other members of this family of flies.

Technical Abstract: Olcella parva (Adams) females were attracted to yellow sticky traps baited with pentanoic acid in a Colorado corn field. Hexanoic acid and propanoic acid were also significantly attractive, but hexanoic acid was significantly less attractive than pentanoic acid, and propanoic acid was significantly less attractive than hexanoic acid. Other fatty acids tested (heptanoic, octanoic, and nonanoic acids) were not attractive. These results are different than the results of a similar study conducted by other workers in Michigan, who found that hexanoic acid was more attractive than pentanoic acid, and found that it attracted only males (not females).