Abstract
Behaviour-modifying chemicals like pheromones and kairomones hold a great potential in pest management. Evidences from mating behaviour studies of the banana weevil, and from the weevil’s responses to their freeze-killed conspecifics, body washes/extracts, live conspecifics (olfactometer studies), and trapped volatiles of mature and immature adults clearly suggest that two types of pheromones are produced in this insect: a female produced sex pheromone and a male produced aggregation pheromone. Both are perceived by olfactory means. The latter has already been isolated by earlier workers and is in use in control programs. Greater successes may however, be recorded with the control of this pest (e.g. in mating disruptions, mass trappings, pest monitoring) if the female-sex pheromone also gets finally isolated, and used in conjunction with good cultural practices. Key words: Cosmopolites sordidus, sex pheromone, mating disruptions, bioassays, olfactometer studies, gas chromatographic profiles, electroantennogram studies.
Highlights
The banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus Germar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is recognized as the major insect pest of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) (Ostmark, 1974; Gold et al, 2001)
Our results strongly suggest that two pheromones are produced in this insect - a female produced sex pheromone and a male produced aggregation pheromone
The apparent absence of discreet behavioural responses by responding males to freeze-killed females suggest that at death, female banana weevils cease to be sexually attractive to the males
Summary
The banana weevil, Cosmopolites sordidus Germar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is recognized as the major insect pest of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.) (Ostmark, 1974; Gold et al, 2001). The eggs are usually laid singly and superficially by adult females at the base of the plant, or corm and in the crop residues Koppenhofer (1993); and upon hatching the larvae which constitutes the most destructive stage of the pest (Jones, 1986) burrows into the stems, weakens them and makes them liable to wind damage (Acland, 1971). Damage to young suckers by a single borer (weevil larva) is almost catastrophic, as the larva eats up a large part of the corm and growing points, setting up secondary rots from which the plant has no chance of recovery (Simmonds and Simmonds, 1953).
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