Both the squash bug Anasa tristis and horned squash bug Anasa armigera are attracted to vittatalactone, the aggregation pheromone of striped cucumber beetle

Authors: Weber, Donald; Haber, Ariela; PASTEUR, KAYLA - Former ARS Employee; BOYLE, SEAN - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University; KUHAR, THOMAS - Virginia Polytechnic Institution & State University; Cornelius, Mary

Submitted to: Environmental Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/7/2022
Publication Date: 9/30/2022
Citation: Weber, D.C., Haber, A.I., Pasteur, K., Boyle, S.M., Kuhar, T.P., Cornelius, M.L. 2022. Both the squash bug Anasa tristis and horned squash bug Anasa armigera are attracted to vittatalactone, the aggregation pheromone of striped cucumber beetle. Environmental Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvac079.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvac079

Interpretive Summary: Squash bugs are serious pests of cucurbit (squash, cucumber, and melon) crops across the US, degrading quantity and quality of crop yield by their feeding and also by vectoring bacterial pathogens. They are difficult to monitor, contributing to the prevalence of pesticide treatments to avoid possible crop loss. Improved techniques to monitor and manage these pests would contribute to improved pest management and a reduction in insecticide-related risk to pollinators which are necessary to cucurbit production. Another cucurbit pest, the striped cucumber beetle, produces an aggregation pheromone called vittatalactone, which is also attractive to squash bugs; presumably this "eavesdropping" on the beetle's pheromone enables the bugs to colonize crops more rapidly. We tested the response of two species of squash bugs, the squash bug (Anasa tristis), and the horned squash bug (Anasa armigera), to traps baited with synthetic vittatalactone, in Maryland and Virginia. We found that female bugs of both species are attracted, and males of the horned squash bug, but not males of the squash bug Anasa tristis. These findings suggest that the synthetic pheromone vittatalactone will be useful to the monitoring and possibly mass trapping of both species of squash bugs, and thus to help manage multiple species of the cucurbit pest complex in North America. The results will be of interest to cucurbit researchers and pest managers, as well as pheromone providers, in regard to using behavior pest control for protection of this important group of vegetable crops.

Technical Abstract: Vittatalactone, the aggregation pheromone of the striped cucumber beetle, Acalymma vittatum (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) is attractive to two species of squash bugs (Hemiptera: Coreidae), the squash bug Anasa tristis (DeGeer) and horned squash bug Anasa armigera Say. In field trapping experiments in Maryland and Virginia, clear sticky traps baited with 1mg of synthetic mixed vittatalactone captured ~9x more of female A. tristis and of both sexes of A. armigera, whereas male A. tristis were not significantly attracted, compared to unbaited traps. Anasa armigera showed a distinct dose response to vittatalactone lure loading in the late season, and this species was more attracted than A. tristis, based on comparison to captures from wooden boards emplaced in adjacent fields. Results suggest that vittatalactone could be a “keystone semiochemical” in colonization of cucurbit hosts by specialist herbivores, and offer the opportunity for multi-species behavioral control as a component of integrated pest management in cucurbit crops.