Pink Bollworm (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae): Communication Disruption by Pheromone Composition Imbalance1

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Abstract
Seven compounds, including the four geometrical isomers of 7, 11-hexadecadienyl acetate, hexalure, gossyplure, and Z-7-hexadecenyl alcohol, were tested in a wind tunnel for communication disruptant activity against Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). Gossyplure and its two individual component isomers, Z,Z- and Z, E-7, 11-hexadeeadienyl acetate, significantly reduced male catches in a gossyplure baited trap suspended upwind behind an array of septa treated with 1.0 mg of the materials. In subsequent tests, all three materials were about equally effective in reducing trap catch by 96 to 98% in field plots (15.5 by 15.5 m) treated with rubber septa containing 1 mg per septum of the materials (289 septa per plot, rate of 12,486 septa containing 12.5 g of materials per ha). Mating of clipped-wing virgin laboratory females in mini-mating tables within the plots was similarly reduced by 93 to 97% by the three materials. Our observations of males in the wind tunnel and field plots indicated that, in the gossyplurepermeated atmosphere, males expended their efforts finding septa (confusion). However, males subjected to either of the individual isomers of gossyplure did not search out treated septa and appeared to be inactive. We attribute the latter result to a perceived imbalance in the ambient ratio of pheromone components due to the release of only one component. The disruption of communication by ratio imbalance of multicomponent pheromones is widely documented for other Lepidoptera and should be tested in the field for control of the pink bollworm.

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