Development of a pheromone trap for monitor black pine bast scale, Matsucoccus thunbergianae (Hemiptera: Margarodidae)

Abstract

Black pine bast scale, Matsucoccus thunbergianae spreads rapidly to northern and eastern coastal regions and caused serious damage to black pine trees, Pinus thunbergii. To monitor accurate occurrence with the sex pheromone of M. thunbergianae, we synthesized racemic matsuone [(2E,4E,6R)-4,6,10,12-tetramethyltrideca-2,4-dien-7-one] and evaluated its attractiveness with two types of stick traps in Namhae, Sacheon, and Jinju. Two-sided sticky traps baited with the sex pheromone attracted significantly more male M. thunbergianae in Namhae in 2013. Eight-sided sticky traps baited with 50μg racemic matsuone attracted significantly more males M. thunbergianae than did control traps at Namhae and Sacheon in 2014. The result was confirmed through a field bioassay performed at Jinju in 2015. Our results suggest that the newly developed eight-sided stick pheromone traps could supply more accurate but also easier to apply monitoring data than the traditional egg sac survey method for M. thunbergianae.