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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wapato, Washington » Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390509
Research Project: Integrated Approach to Manage the Pest Complex on Temperate Tree Fruits

Location: Temperate Tree Fruit and Vegetable Research

Title: A symmetrical diester as the sex attractant pheromone of the North American click beetle Parallelostethus attenuates (Say) (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

Author
item MILLAR, J - University Of California
item WILLIAMS III, L - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Serrano, Jacqueline
item HALLORAN, SEAN - University Of California
item GROMMES, ANNA - University Of Illinois
item HUSETH, ANDERS - Virginia Tech
item KUHAR, THOMAS - North Carolina State University
item HANKS, LAWRENCE - University Of Illinois

Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/24/2022
Publication Date: 4/9/2022
Citation: Millar, J.G., Williams Iii, L., Serrano, J.M., Halloran, S., Grommes, A.C., Huseth, A.S., Kuhar, T.P., Hanks, L. 2022. A symmetrical diester as the sex attractant pheromone of the North American click beetle Parallelostethus attenuates (Say) (Coleoptera: Elateridae). Journal of Chemical Ecology. 48;598-608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-022-01360-8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-022-01360-8

Interpretive Summary: Wireworms, the juvenile stages of click beetles, are resurging pests of many staple crops such as cereals and root vegetables. Management of wireworms is becoming difficult due to loss of effective pesticides, therefore management practices need to incorporate other methods. Identification of click beetle (adult wireworms) pheromones has led to improved integrated pest management practices in Europe and Japan. A research team that included researchers at the USDA-ARS in Wapato, WA and Charleston, SC, University of California Riverside, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, identified the sex pheromone of a click beetle species that is broadly distributed across the county. In addition, the compound that was identified from female beetles is unique among insects and represents a new natural product.

Technical Abstract: Click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) represent a large family of beetles, some of which are important pest species on staple crops. Due to the resurgence of pest elaterids, there has been interest in developing semiochemical-based methods to monitor and trap adult beetles. Here, we describe the identification of the female-produced sex pheromone of Parallelostethus attenuates (Say), which is a wide-spread species in the eastern United States. There were six different chemical compounds that were identified from crushed abdomens of females, which is where putative pheromone glands exist. In field trials carried out in two states, male beetles were strongly attracted to one of the six compounds, 1,8-octanediol dihexanoate (“diester”). Blends that contained the diester with one or more of the other compounds, were less attractive than the diester alone, which suggests that the sex pheromone may consist of just one component.