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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Mayaguez, Puerto Rico » Tropical Crops and Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #296854
Title: Attraction of pollinators to atemoya (Annona squamosa x A. cherimola) in Puerto Rico using commercial lures and food attractants

Author
item Jenkins, David
item MILLAN-HERNANDEZ, CHRISTIAN - Universidad Interamericana De Puerto Rico
item CLINE, ANDREW - California Department Of Food And Agriculture
item Goenaga, Ricardo

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/4/2015
Publication Date: 6/4/2015
Citation: Jenkins, D.A., Millan-Hernandez, C., Cline, A.R., Goenaga, R.J. 2015. Attraction of pollinators to atemoya (Annona squamosa x A. cherimola) in Puerto Rico using commercial lures and food attractants. Journal of Economic Entomology. doi: 10.1993/jee/tov136.

Interpretive Summary: Atemoya and other fruit species in the family Annonaceae are delicious and highly valuable exotic fruits. However, trees typically yield few fruit or small fruit due to lack or poor pollination, making production un-economical. These fruit are usually pollinated by small beetles in the family Nitidulidae. Previous work has shown that commercially available lures for this family attract pollinators in Puerto Rico, but the addition of food attractants, including bread dough and apple juice, have been used in Australia and Florida to improve the attractiveness of the lures. This new research shows that four beetle species, all potential pollinators of atemoya, were more attracted to lures combined with food attractants, including bread dough, apple juice and malt beverage, a soft drink by-product of the brewing process, than to lures alone. These results indicate that lures and attractants used together may increase the number of fruit per tree and the size of the fruit.

Technical Abstract: Atemoya is a hybrid between Annona squamosa and A. cherimola (Annonaceae) and has potential to be a major fruit crop in tropical and subtropical areas. A major impediment to fruit production is low fruit-set due to inadequate pollinator visits, typically Nitidulidae beetles. We used Universal moth traps to monitor the attractiveness of two commercially available Nitidulidae lures in combination with various food attractants, including raw bread dough, apple juice, and malt beverage, a soft drink by-product of the brewing process. The most commonly trapped beetles were, in order of decreasing frequency, Carpophilus dimidiatus, an unidentified Brachypeplus sp., Urophorus humeralis, and an unidentified Europs sp. All traps, except the control traps that were not baited, caught some beetles. In a previous study, we found that combining two commercial lures had a synergistic effect on the attraction of these beetle species. In this study, the addition of some food attractants increased the number of beetles trapped compared to traps baited with only the commercial lures. Applying commercial nitidulid lures in conjunction with food attractants in atemoya orchards may increase fruit set and fruit size.