First field evidence that parasitoids use upwind anemotaxis for host-habitat location

The direction of flight of natural populations of Phradis interstitialis (Thomson), Tersilochus obscurator Aubert (both Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), and Platygaster subuliformis (Kieffer) (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae), parasitoids of three crucifer‐specialist herbivores, to and from their hosts’ host plant [oilseed rape, Brassica napus L. (Brassicaceae)] was studied in the field within a heterogeneous arable environment. Double‐sided Malaise traps encircling a plot of winter oilseed rape (cultivar Lutin) were used to sample the parasitoids as they flew towards and away from the plot during spring and summer. Daily trap catch of parasitoids and trap air flow were compared using Spearman's rank correlation. For all 14 insect days analysed, and for each species, the correlations between daily catch of parasitoids into distal halves of traps (relative to the plot) and wind direction were negative, significantly so on half the days analysed. This confirmed that flights towards the plot were by upwind anemotaxis. In contrast, the correlations between daily catch of parasitoids into proximal halves of traps (relative to the plot) and wind direction were most often crosswind; they were never strongly nor significantly either negative or positive. Implications of the results for integrated pest management strategies incorporating biological control with these parasitoids are discussed.     

Olfactory orientation responses of the eucalyptus woodborer, Phoracantha semipunctata, to host plant in a wind tunnel

The eucalyptus woodborer, Phoracantha semipunctata Fabricius (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), attacks mainly species of Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae). This study investigated walking and flight behaviour of P. semipunctata males and females exposed to an odour plume originating from a log of E. globulus placed vertically in the upwind end of a wind tunnel. In control experiments, beetles were exposed to a PVC drainpipe in the same position as the log, providing a visual stimulus without host‐tree odour. No statistical differences were found between behavioural responses of either sex when exposed to the log or PVC pipe. No beetles landed on the PVC pipe, whereas 49% of the beetles exposed to host‐tree odour plume landed on the log. Beetles aged over 24 days after emergence from the host tree were more responsive than beetles aged 20–24 days, and accounted vor 86% of the beetles that landed on the log. While walking, host‐tree odour affected the behaviour of the beetles that landed on the log as follows: upwind movement and path linearity increased, whereas turning rate, stopping frequency, mean stopping time and time to take‐off flight decreased. During flight, host‐tree odour affected the behaviour of the beetles that landed on the log as follows: increased upwind flight, turning rate, flight time, flight distance, and decreased flight speed. For beetles that never lost contact with the odour plume, flight progressed upwind with narrow zigzags, and showed higher directedness upwind, path linearity, faster flight speed and lower turning rate than for beetles that lost contact with the odour plume. After loosing contact with the plume, beetles tended to decrease their upwind progression, exhibiting a sharp turn or quick counterturns followed by crosswind or downwind excursions. This led to regaining contact with the odour plume and resumed upwind progression at higher speed provided they flew within the boundaries of the plume. The results showed that host‐tree odour affects both walking and flight behaviour of P. semipunctata beetles, inducing a more directed upwind movement and landing on the visual stimulus of a tree trunk.     

Contribution of habitat type to residency and dispersal choices by overwintered and summer adult Colorado potato beetles

The walking and flight dispersal of marked overwintered and summer Colorado potato beetles (CPB), Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), released in field box‐plots was monitored simultaneously in six habitats over a period of 4 days. The emigration out of plots by walking beetles was calculated from the catch in linear pitfall traps completely surrounding each box‐plot and emigration flight was estimated from the number of beetles missing from the plot or captured by the trap. Overwintered beetles dispersed sooner after release than summer beetles. Overall, the mean number of beetles retained by the habitat was significantly higher in the host habitat (potato) than in any non‐host habitat tested (soybean, pasture, bare ground, water, woodland). Unexpectedly, there was no or little difference in overall beetle retention between non‐host habitats except for higher retention in the water habitat. No difference in the ratio of flight over walking could be detected by the study between overwintered and summer CPB except in the water and woodland habitats. Twenty‐four hours after release, the highest ratios were obtained in the water and woodland habitats and the lowest in the bare‐ground habitat, but ratios were similar for all habitats, except water, after 96 h. As a population, under these experimental conditions, 96 h after release, it seems that CPB displayed a slight preference for flight over walking, with walking as a default mode. A fed and starved pre‐release treatment had no effect on dispersal rates or mode of dispersal. Essentially, our results showed that over a 96‐h period, northeastern North American CPB emigrated at similar rates from the various non‐host habitats encountered, except for water, using walking as much as flight. The host habitat retained CPB significantly longer than non‐host habitats but with a mode of dispersal ratio similar to that in non‐host habitats. The impact on dispersal of the various habitats encountered by CPB in the agro‐ecosystem was less important than expected suggesting that the interaction of environmental parameters is likely to have the most significant impact in determining dispersal rates and dispersal modes.     

An alternative hibernation strategy involving sun-exposed 'hotspots', dispersal by flight, and host plant finding by olfaction in an alpine leaf beetle

Oreina cacaliae (Schrank) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) has a 2‐year life cycle that it has to complete within the short warm seasons of the harsh alpine environment. Three years of field observations and experiments revealed that not all beetles overwintered in the soil next to their principal host Adenostyles alliariae (Asteraceae), as was previously assumed, but that many O. cacaliae left their host in autumn and flew to overwintering sites that were extensively sun‐exposed. In spring, these individuals became active 2 months earlier than their conspecifics that had remained in the soil close to the host plant. These early beetles flew from their hibernation sites against the direction of the prevailing wind. After a random landing in snow, they walked to the spring host Petasites paradoxus (Asteraceae) and fed on its floral stalks, the only plant parts present at that time. A few weeks later, they took flight again to locate newly emerging A. alliariae on which they would feed and deposit larvae as did individuals that had overwintered close to A. alliariae. Leaves of A. alliariae contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), which the beetles sequester for their own defence. The dominating PA (seneciphylline) was also found to be present in the floral stalks of P. paradoxus. With additional behavioural assays in the field and laboratory, we demonstrated the importance of plant odours in the short‐range host location process. This study reveals a unique hibernation behaviour in which part of the beetle population uses exceptionally warm locations from which they emerge in spring, long before all the snow has melted. This early, but risky emergence allows them to exploit a second, highly suitable host plant, which they locate first by wind‐guided flight and then by odour‐guided walking. The well‐fed beetles then use odour again to move to their principal host plant, on which they reproduce.     

Attraction of codling moth males to apple volatiles

The attraction of the codling moth, Cydia pomonella, to apple volatile compounds known to elicit an antennal response was tested both in the field and in a wind tunnel. In the field, (E)‐β‐farnesene captured male moths. The addition of other apple volatiles, including (E,E)‐α‐farnesene, linalool, or (E,E)‐farnesol to (E)‐β‐farnesene did not significantly augment trap catch. Few females were caught in traps which also caught male moths, but female captures were not significantly different from blank traps. In the wind tunnel, males were attracted to (E,E)‐farnesol, but not to (E)‐β‐farnesene. The addition of (E,E)‐α‐farnesene to (E)‐β‐farnesene had a synergistic effect on male attraction. The male behavioural sequence elicited by plant volatiles, including upwind flight behaviour, was indistinguishable from the behaviour elicited by sex pheromone.     

Flight manoeuvers used by a parasitic wasp to locate host-infested plant

Cotesia rubecula Marshall (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a specialist larval parasitoid of the butterfly Pieris rapae L. which itself feeds almost exclusively upon cruciferous plants. Female wasps are attracted to the odour of host-infested plant (plant-host complex: PHC) and the probability of flights in a wind tunnel depends on females' prior oviposition experience with the PHC and on the concentration of the PHC odour. This study considers the effect of both factors on characteristics of oriented flight upwind towards the PHC. The flight track parameters that we measured and calculated were not significantly affected by these factors. C. rubecula females exhibited high average flight velocity and relatively straight flight tracks. There was a considerable variability between individuals, however, in their odour-modulated upwind flight tracks. Some females generated a zigzagging upwind flight track similar to those commonly observed from male moths responding to female sex pheromone. Other females flew along a straight track directly upwind. The flight tracks of most female wasps were intermediate between these extremes. The full range of these flight performances was observed to all experimental treatments.     

Light versus pheromone-bearing wind in the control of flight direction by bark beetles, Scolytus multistriatus

ABSTRACT. A wind tunnel lit from above was used to measure the relative effectiveness of light as opposed to pheromone-bearing wind in directing the flight of male S.multistriatus. Upward flight in the tunnel was overridingly phototactic not geotactic, while horizontally upwind flight toward the pheromone source was anemotactic not chemotactic, since the pheromone concentration was uniform in the tunnel. The flight tracks of newly-emerged unfed and previously unflown beetles were preponderantly upwards and downwind; the longer the beetles had spent in flight activity beforehand, the more of them flew upwind.     

Free flight capacity determination in a sustained flight tunnel: effects of age and sexual state on the flight duration of Prostephanus truncatus

Abstract. . Adult Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) steering anemotactically upwind to a pheromone source in a wind tunnel, respond normally to, and alter their ground speed according to the direction and speed of, the movement of ground patterns beneath them. By manipulating this optomotor reaction component of their behaviour, studies were conducted on their flight duration. The results show a great deal of individual variation in flight duration, and the general data on single flights were skewed towards short flights. Pre-reproductive and inter-reproductive male and female beetles flew significantly longer than older beetles that had passed their peak of reproduction. There was no significant difference in the flight duration of male and female beetles at any age. The overall results suggest mat younger P. truncatus are capable of long-distance flights, and support the proposition that flight could be important in the spread of the beetle.     

Mate finding in the forest cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani, mediated by volatiles from plants and females

The response of the forest cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani F. (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae), towards volatiles emitted by different host plants and conspecifics was tested in field experiments during the flight period at dusk. Funnel traps containing artificially damaged leaves from the host plants Carpinus betulus L. and Quercus rubra L., as well as from the non‐host plant Prunus serotina Ehrh. caught significantly more beetles than empty control traps. On the other hand, traps baited with undamaged leaves from Q. rubra did not catch significantly more beetles than empty controls. Leaves from C. betulus damaged by beetle feeding did not attract more beetles than artificially damaged leaves. By use of gas chromatography coupled with electroantennographic detection (GC‐EAD) electrophysiological responses of males and females were shown for 18 typical plant volatiles. A synthetic mixture of selected typical green plant volatiles was also highly attractive in the field. A total of 9982 beetles was caught during the field experiments, among them only 33 females. This suggests that attraction to damaged foliage during flight period at dusk is male‐specific. Field experiments testing the attractiveness of female M. hippocastani towards conspecific males by employing caged beetles and beetle extracts indicated that males of M. hippocastani use a female‐derived sex pheromone for mate location. On wired cages containing either unmated feeding females, or unmated females without access to foliage, or feeding males in combination with extracts from unmated females, significantly more males landed during the flight period than on comparable control cages containing feeding males or male extracts. A possible scenario of mate location in M. hippocastani involving feeding‐induced plant volatiles and a female‐derived sex pheromone is discussed.     

Flight directionality of Tribolium castaneum soon after take‐off under glasshouse and field conditions

Flight directionality of the rust‐red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), was investigated under glasshouse and field conditions using sticky traps placed around dense experimental infestations of T. castaneum derived from field‐collected samples. Although beetles of this species are known to fly quite readily, information on flight of beetles away from grain resources is limited. Under still glasshouse conditions, T. castaneum does not demonstrate strong horizontal or vertical trajectories in their initial flight behaviour. Flight was significantly directional in half of the replicates, but trapped beetles were only weakly concentrated around the mean direction of flight. In the field, by contrast, emigration of T. castaneum was strongly directional soon after flight initiation. The mean vector lengths were generally >0.5 which indicates that trapped beetles were strongly concentrated around the calculated mean flight direction. A circular‐circular regression of mean flight vs. mean downwind direction suggested that flight direction was generally correlated with downwind direction. The mean height at which T. castaneum individuals initially flew was 115.4 ± 7.0 cm, with 58.3% of beetles caught no more than 1 m above the ground. The height at which beetles were trapped did not correlate with wind speed at the time of sampling, but the data do indicate that wind speed significantly affected T. castaneum flight initiation, because no beetles (or very few; no more than three) were trapped in the field when the mean wind speed was above 3 m s^?1. This study thus demonstrates that wind speed and direction are both important aspects of flight behaviour of T. castaneum, and therefore of the spatio‐temporal dynamics of this species.     

Effects of light levels and plume structure on the orientation manoeuvres of male gypsy moths flying along pheromone plumes

The upwind zigzag flights of male gypsy moths (Lymantria dispar L.; Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) along narrow, ribbon‐like and wide, turbulent plumes of pheromone were examined in a wind tunnel at light levels of 450 and 4 lux. Under all conditions tested males flew upwind zigzag paths. In 450 lux, males flying along turbulent plumes had the highest ground speeds and the widest crosswind excursions between counterturns, compared to slow flight and a narrow zigzag of males along a ribbon plume. In a turbulent plume, males flew more slowly and had narrower zigzags in 4 than in 450 lux. Across most treatments of plume structure and light level, the rate of transverse image flow and the frequency of counterturning remained relatively constant. The effects of light levels on orientation are not readily reconcilable with a model in which moths in low light levels would head more towards crosswind, thereby enhancing the rate of transverse image flow and the perception of wind‐induced drift.     

Influence of wind conditions and intertrap spacing on pheromone trap catches of male european pine sawfly,Neodiprion sertifer

The spatial distribution of catches of male European pine sawfly,Neodiprion sertifer (Geoffr.) (Hymenoptera, Diprionidae), was studied using different pheromone trap arrays. In hexagonal trap groups, trap interference was evident by reduced catch in the central of seven traps spaced 10 to 40 m apart. When the trap spacings were either 5 or 80 m no significant reduction could be shown. The interaction was more pronounced for strong (100 μg) pheromone ([2S, 3S, 7S]-3,7-dimethyl-2-pentadecanyl acetate) lures than for weak ones (10 μg). Similarly, the inner traps caught less than the outer traps in grids of 6×6 traps spaced 20 or 50 m apart. Mark-release-recapture experiments in the grid array confirmed that a majority of the males originated from outside the trap group and were caught in the first trap they encountered. There were no differences between catches in downwind, crosswind and upwind traps. Thus, no ‘overshooting’ was evident during average conditions, i.e. the sawflies did not divert from the trap initially attracting them by flying to the upwind trap. However, the proportion caught in the upwind traps increased with increasing wind velocity, suggesting more overlapping pheromone plumes at higher wind speeds. Also, the recapture rate of released males increased with increasing wind velocity up to a daily average of 3.1 m/s at 2m, indicating that sawflies more easily find the pheromone source, probably due to a more stable pheromone puff trajectory during higher wind velocities. The application of pheromone traps in e.g. monitoring studies is discussed and a distance of at least 50 m between the traps with strong lures used in the present study is recommended to avoid trap interaction.     

Effect of diet and feeding history on flight of Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata

We evaluated the hypothesis that Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say) (CPB) flight frequency is related to diet, and that it changes with duration of food unavailability or exposure to poor quality food by exposing adult overwintered and summer CPB populations to an acceptable host plant (conventional foliage), a poor host (insect resistant transgenic foliage expressing Bacillus thuringiensis tenebrionis[Btt] Cry3a toxin) and no host. Exposure to poor host and no host treatments (with or without water) decreased mean daily flight frequencies and the overall number of overwintered CPB flying, but increased the mean daily flight frequency and number of summer population CPB that flew. Overwintered CPB did not react to an absence of plants at emergence whereas summer CPB increased mean daily flight frequencies when plants and water were not available. The flight response to insect resistant foliage was similar to that for starvation treatments in both populations indicating that flight may not be triggered by Btt toxins but by starvation brought on by feeding on poor quality food. Flight was observed in all treatments for the duration of the test with two exceptions; overwintered beetles fed insect resistant foliage ceased flying after day 17 and summer beetles starved without water ceased after day 8 of a 29‐day study.     

Recapture of Ips typographus L. (Col., Scolytidae) with attractants of low release rates: localized dispersion and environmental influences

1 The dispersal of Ips typographus L. (Col., Scolytidae) was studied using a mark–release–recapture approach in a grid of traps equipped with pheromone lures of release rates of about 8.4 mg/day of 2‐methyl‐3‐buten‐2‐ol (MB) and 0.29 mg/day of (S)‐cis‐verbenol (cV) in experiment 1, and 1.2 mg/day of MB and 0.04 mg/day of cV in experiment 2. 2 We investigated whether beetle dispersal reflected the simple diffusion pattern observed in previous I. typographus experiments, for which attractant release rates generally approached 50 mg/day of MB and 1 mg/day of cV. We also examined how environmental parameters (wind) and human activities (felling) could influence the beetles' flight. 3 The recapture percentage was higher in experiment 1 than in experiment 2: respectively, 7.0% (with 64 traps) and 2.3% (with 100 traps) of the beetles that took off were caught in the traps. 4 With the higher release rate (experiment 1), trap catches decreased with increased distance, whereas with the lower release rate (experiment 2), trap catches rose between 50 and 100 m then decreased with increasing distance. 5 Flight was little orientated by prevailing wind directions, a feature probably explained by the low wind speeds (0–1.2 m/s) observed throughout the study. 6 High trap catches of unmarked beetles close to areas undergoing thinning activities suggest that the presence of freshly cut spruce and larch material could have an influence on dispersal, attracting the beetles into the felling area. Spatial analyses show that capture patterns were autocorrelated up to distances of about 250 m.     

Structure of host-odour plumes influences catch of Anopheles gambiae s.s. and Aedes aegypti in a dual-choice olfactometer

The effects of structure, concentration and composition of host‐odour plumes on catch of female Anopheles gambiae Giles sensu stricto and Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) were investigated in a dual‐choice olfactometer. We demonstrate that the fine‐scale structure of host‐odour plumes modulates capture of An. gambiae and Ae. aegypti. In both species homogeneous skin‐odour plumes result in trap entry, whereas homogeneous CO₂ plumes reduce trap catch. Reduced trap catch also result from combining skin odour with a homogeneous CO₂ plume. Trap capture rates in homogeneous CO₂ plumes were concentration‐dependent and differed between the two species. Electric nets placed in front of the trap entrances intercepted mosquitoes before they could enter the traps. This showed that An. gambiae flew along CO₂ plumes, but did not enter the traps. Survivorship analysis of the trap‐entry times of Ae. aegypti indicated interactions between the time until capture and treatment. The assay's duration therefore can alter the distribution in a dual‐choice olfactometer.     

Three‐dimensional flight tracking shows how a visual target alters tsetse fly responses to human breath in a wind tunnel

Tsetse flies Glossina spp. (Diptera; Glossinidae) are blood‐feeding vectors of disease that are attracted to vertebrate hosts by odours and visual cues. Studies on how tsetse flies approach visual devices are of fundamental interest because they can help in the development of more efficient control tools. The responses of a forest tsetse fly species Glossina brevipalpis (Newstead) to human breath are tested in a wind tunnel in the presence or absence of a blue sphere as a visual target. The flight responses are video recorded with two motion‐sensitive cameras and characterized in three dimensions. Although flies make meandering upwind flights predominantly in the horizontal plane in the plume of breath alone, upwind flights are highly directed at the visual target presented in the plume of breath. Flies responding to the visual target fly from take‐off within stricter flight limits at lower ground speeds and with a significantly lower variance in flight trajectories in the horizontal plane. Once at the target, flies fly in loops principally in the horizontal plane within 40 cm of the blue sphere before descending in spirals beneath it. Successful field traps designed for G. brevipalpis take into account the strong horizontal component in local search behaviour by this species at objects. The results suggest that trapping devices should also take into account the propensity of G. brevipalpis to descend to the lower parts of visual targets.     

Effect of physiological state and fungal inoculation on chemically modulated host-plant finding by Carpophilus hemipterus and Carpophilus lugubris

Host orientation by Carpophilus hemipterus L. and Carpophilus lugubris Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) was investigated in a horizontal wind tunnel to ascertain if these species differ in their response to aseptic and fungal-inoculated hosts, and also to determine how age, nutritional status, diel period, and locomotory opportunity affect these behavioral responses. Both species responded to food odors beginning on Day 3 of adult life by walking upwind to the source; flight activity and flights to the odor source began for C. hemipterus on Day 4, but C. lugubris continued to walk to the source and rarely flew regardless of age. Both species displayed maximum response to food odors from 6 to 9 days after emergence and showed bimodality in host orientation during the photophase. C. hemipterus maintained with artificial diet took flight as frequently as when maintained with water only, as long as they were deprived of diet for 36 h before the test; however, after takeoff, beetles maintained with diet were less likely to fly to food odor in comparison to beetles maintained with water. C. lugubris maintained with diet until 36 h before the test displayed a reduction in walks upwind to sources of food odor compared to beetles maintained with water. Three hours of unrestricted locomotion under a high-pressure sodium lamp did not enhance upwind orientation to host odors by C. hemipterus maintained with diet or water, or by C. lugubris maintained with water; however, such preexposure to a sodium lamp resulted in reduced takeoffs in C. hemipterus maintained with artificial diet. Both species were attracted to all fruit and vegetable substrates offered; however, aseptic substrates were less attractive than were substrates inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae Hansen or Candida krusei (Castellani) Berkhout for C. lugubris. Despite the broad host range exhibited by these two nitidulid species, each responded to chemical cues from longrange (2.5 m), a trait once assigned to specialists.     

Distant olfactory response of the onion fly, Delia antiqua, to host-plant odour in the field

ABSTRACT. Distant olfactory orientation of female adult Delia antiqua (Meigen) to the host-plant Allium volatile dipropyl-disulphide (DPDS) was examined in the field using mark-release-recapture experiments and observations of flight behaviour. Onion-reared, post-diapause, virgin females from a laboratory colony dispersed upwind when released in the centre of 25, 50 and 100 m radius circles of eight 50 μl UDPDS baits. Percentage recapture and dispersal directedness did not decrease as a function of increasing distance to baits. In all cases the mean flight direction of recaptured flies closely correlated with mean wind direction. However, modes of the circular distributions of recaptured flies were located further crosswind when odour-baits were more distant. When distance was held constant (25 m) and DPDS concentration serially reduced (500–0.05 μ/bait), flies dispersed randomly in the absence of DPDS, crosswind in response to 0.05 μl baits and upwind in response to all other baits. Percentage recaptures on DPDS-baited traps of all concentrations were significantly greater than unbaited traps. Results from markrecapture studies were corroborated by observations of flight behaviour downwind. Flies located 100 m downwind from 50 μl DPDS baits flew upwind on take off while take-off flights in the absence of DPDS were random. Our data indicate that Allium volatiles like DPDS are involved not only in the acceptance phase of host-selection, but also in the first and probably most important stage when onion flies are initiating search long distances downwind. We conclude that D. antiqua orients to host-plants using olfactory cues from distances that should be classified as long-range ( sensu Kennedy , 1977     

Orientation of Culex mosquitoes to carbon dioxide-baited traps: flight manoeuvres and trapping efficiency

Females of Culex quinquefasciatus Say and Culex tarsalis Coquillet (Diptera: Culicidae) in the host-seeking stage were released and video recorded in three dimensions in a large field wind tunnel as they flew to four kinds of CO2-baited mosquito traps. The trapping efficiency (number of mosquitoes approaching compared to the number caught) was determined for each trap type. The Encephalitis Virus Surveillance (EVS), Mosquito Magnet Freedom (MMF) and Mosquito Magnet Liberty (MML) traps captured only 13-16% of approaching Cx. quinquefasciatus females, whereas the Mosquito Magnet-X (MMX) trap captured 58%. Similar results were obtained for Cx. tarsalis. Orientation behaviour and flight parameters of mosquitoes approaching the four traps were compared. Mosquitoes spent the most time orienting to the EVS trap. Flight speed decreased as mosquitoes entered the vicinity of each trap and a large portion of their time was spent within 30 cm downwind of the traps. Flights became highly tortuous downwind of the poorly performing traps and just upwind of the MMX trap. Differences between traps and possible explanations for the superior performance of the MMX trap are considered.     

Trapping and sex pheromone-mediated flight and landing behaviour of maleCtenopseustis obliquana

A sex pheromone-baited delta trap was found to be inefficient at eliciting landing and entering of the trap by maleCtenopseustis obliquana. The inefficiency of the delta trap related to turbulence altering the pheromone plume and the concomitant effect on the flight manoeuvres of male moths. In the wind tunnel, high proportions of males flew upwind and landed on the sides, outside, of the trap, but only a relatively small proportion of these males entered the trap and contacted the sticky surface. When males approached the delta trap, they tended to fly in wide zigzags (i.e., large inter-track reversal distances) and at an altitude near the top of the trap, where the trap was relatively narrow in width (compared to the bottom). Thus, these flight manoeuvres largely precluded males from entering the trap. Greater numbers of male moths entered the trap when: (i) the front barriers of the delta trap were removed, (ii) pheromone dosage was increased to 300 μg, and (iii) the trap design was changed to a rectangular one. The first two changes appeared to influence the flight manoeuvres of males (who appeared to fly with narrower inter-track reversal distances), while the third change apparently did not affect the glight manoeuvres of males, but rather allowed more males to enter the trap because of the greater area of the entrance. The low trap catches of maleC. obliquana in the field are also a consequence of the glue which is currently used. After contact with this glue most males are able to escape, flying off the sticky surface and losing contact with the pheromone. A field trial found that delta traps with another glue caught more than three times the number of males of the related tortricid moth,Epiphyas postvittana, than delta traps with the currently used glue.