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Title: IDENTIFICATION OF A SPECIES-SPECIFIC MALE-PRODUCED PHEROMONE BLEND FOR NEOTROPICAL BROWN STINK BUG

Author
item Zhang, Aijun
item BORGES, MIGUEL - EMBRAPA LABEX BRAZIL
item Oliver, James
item Aldrich, Jeffrey
item Camp, Mary

Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Ecology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/21/2001
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Neotropical brown stink bug, Euschistus heros, is one species in a complex of stink bugs that are serious pests of soybean in Central and South America. More than four million liters of chemical insecticides are applied annually to control these pests in Brazil alone. Ecologically benign management methods are needed here. The newly identified attractant blend from the brown stink bug has potential for monitoring and mass trapping this economic pest without interfering with other beneficial species.

Technical Abstract: A blend of three methyl esters from the male Neotropical brown stinkbug, Euschistus heros, is proposed as the species-specific male-produced pheromone based on gas chromatographic- electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) techniques. Identities of these esters were confirmed by comparison of GC retention times on polar and non-polar capillary columns and of GC-Mass spectra with authentic samples. The three GC-EAD active components reproducibly found in volatiles collected from males were methyl (2E,4Z)-decadienoate (53%), methyl 2,6,10- trimethyldodecanoate (3%), and methyl 2,6,10- trimethyltridecanoate (44%). Laboratory olfactometer behavior bioassays showed that 5 micro grams of the synthetic blend on a filter paper strip was as attractive as ten 20-day-old live males to female bugs.