Electroantennogram Responses and Field Trapping of Asian Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae) with Blattellaquinone, Sex Pheromone of the German Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae).

Abstract

The Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai Mizukubo, first introduced to Florida in 1986, has been spreading throughout the southeastern United States. Populations can reach extremely high densities and cause damage to crops as well as become a nuisance in residential settings. Because the German cockroach, Blattella germanica L., is its closest extant relative, we characterized the B. asahinai male response to blattellaquinone, the sex pheromone of the German cockroach, in an effort to develop monitoring tools for B. asahinai. Electroantennogram (EAG) analysis was conducted on B. asahinai and B. germanica males and females, and revealed that the antennae of males of both species responded significantly more to blattellaquinone than females, and in both males and females absolute EAG responses of B. asahinai were greater than in B. germanica males and females, respectively. However, normalized male EAG response curves and ED50 values (effective dose to elicit 50% of maximal response) did not differ significantly between the two species. Results of field trapping experiments demonstrated that male B. asahinai were more attracted to blattellaquinone than any other life stage, and 10 μg of blattellaquinone attracted the most males. These results suggest that blattellaquinone or a similar compound might be a component of the sex pheromone of B. asahinai females.