Tephritid fruit flies are major horticultural pests of fruit and vegetable crops. Developing an odour lure that can attract mated female flies under field conditions has presented a major challenge to chemical ecologists around the globe. We have designed a new lure to attract female Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni, based on the knowledge that this pest tephritid is attracted not only to odours from ripening fruits, but also to odours of symbiotic (gut-associated) yeasts on which the larvae feed. Initial field trials screened four volatile mixtures, each containing a base mix of three, short-chain "fruit ripening" esters and differing in the addition of long-chain "fruity" esters and / or alcohols produced by live yeasts. Results demonstrated that the lure formulated from short-chain esters and live yeast alcohols attracted the most female flies, with significantly higher catches than an odourless control trap, and a protein-baited trap. As electrophysiological studies exploring peripheral responses in tephritids to alcohols associated with fermentation have not been extensively investigated, we conducted this work on both the antennae and maxillary palps, and discovered that three yeast alcohols were detected by both sensory organs. Performance trials conducted in pome fruit and stone fruit orchards evaluated the six-component blend of short-chain ester and live yeast alcohol lure against a commercially available synthetic fruit-odour lure and a protein-based lure. In the apple orchard, the new lure caught significantly more female flies, and in particular mated females, compared to the commercially available lures. In the stone fruit orchard, while the new lure again caught the most mated female flies compared to the other lures, differences were not significant. The visual stimulus (trap design) used had a significant effect on capture, with a Ladd trap (red sphere on a yellow panel) being considerably more effective than the other traps. We discuss the implications of this study, including why the degree of effectiveness of the new lure might have differed among the test orchards (citrus, apple, stonefruit), and why yeast odours might increase attractiveness to "ripening fruit" volatile blends under field conditions.
Keywords: Bactrocera tryoni; Female lure; Mass trapping; Pest management.
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