Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #305676
Title: From a nontarget to a target: identification of a fermentation volatile blend attractive to Zaprionus Indianus

Author
item Cha, Dong
item Gill, Micah
item Epsky, Nancy
item Werle, Christopher
item Adamczyk, John
item Landolt, Peter

Submitted to: Journal of Applied Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/26/2014
Publication Date: 9/1/2015
Citation: Cha, D.H., Gill, M.A., Epsky, N.D., Werle, C.T., Adamczyk Jr, J.J., Landolt, P.J. 2015. From a nontarget to a target: identification of a fermentation volatile blend attractive to Zaprionus Indianus. Journal of Applied Entomology. 139:114-122.

Interpretive Summary: The African fig fly is rapidly spreading through the New World and is a new potential pest for numerous subtropical and temperate fruit crops. Trapping with fruit juice or fermented food baits is presently the means of detecting and monitoring the fly but they require frequent baiting and capture many nontarget insects. Using the odor chemicals released from wine and vinegar, researchers at the USDA-ARS laboratories in Wapato, WA, Miami, FL and Poplarville, MS developed a strong synthetic chemical attractant for the African fig fly that is selective for the fly. This result provides a first synthetic attractant that might be useful for developing a lure for detection, monitoring and management of the African fig fly.

Technical Abstract: The African fig fly, Zaprionus indianus Gupta, is rapidly spreading through the New World and is a new potential pest for numerous fruit crops. Methods are needed to detect and monitor Z. indianus. A recent study shows that Z. indianus can be attracted with a mixture of wine and vinegar, but there are no chemical attractants yet identified. This fly was captured incidentally as a nontarget insect in experiments to develop chemical lures, based on wine and vinegar fermentation volatiles, for Drosophila suzukii Matsumura and D. melanogaster Meigen, providing testable hypotheses on what combination of these volatiles is involved in Z. indianus attraction to wine and vinegar. We determined through a series of trapping experiments that the blend of ethanol, acetic acid, acetoin, isoamyl acetate, methionol, and ethyl hexanoate constitutes a strong attractant for Z. indianus, and accounts for its attraction to the combination of wine and vinegar. These results and findings provide the first opportunity to develop a long lasting and consistent chemical lure for trapping of Z. indianus. Such a lure in a suitable trap should provide a good means to document the spread of the fly, and determine its seasonality and abundance in new areas and crops.