Abstract
The parapheromone, methyl eugenol (ME) (3, 4 dimethoxyalyl benzene), occurring in a variety of plant species, is the most effective known lure attracting the male oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel). Bioassays were carried out in a wind tunnel under laboratory conditions, to evaluate behavioural responses of male flies to seven concentrations of ME, diurnal pattern of male responsiveness and age of responsiveness to methyl eugenol and the factors influencing the responsiveness of males to ME. Attraction of male flies to ME was assessed by moni- toring three behavioural parameters namely the number of flies performing upwind zigzagging anemotactic flights over at least 50cm to the ME source, total number of flies landing on the source and the total number of flies moved into the upwind section of the wind tunnel after 20 minutes. The responsiveness of males to ME in- creased with the increase of the concentration, 0.0001μl eliciting the lowest and 5.0μl producing the highest at- traction in males. All the males which were attracted exhibited a feeding response and no other behavioural re- sponse was observed. Male responsiveness to ME was not uniform throughout the day. The responses were high- est during the morning (82.6%), declined to a lower level in the afternoon (41.8%) and then dropped markedly at the ‘dusk’ period (11.4%). This decline in response to ME suggested an inverse relationship to the time of peak mating activity in the male. Male responsiveness to ME was found to be age-dependent. The response to the at- tractant increased with the age of the flies indicating a relationship between responses to ME and sexual maturity of the flies. No significant responses were evident when males were 1, 3 and 5 days old. Males were strongly at- tracted to ME by the time they were 10d-old and the highest attraction was observed in 15d-old males. Attraction to ME was still considerably high even when they were 25 and 30d-old. Tropical Agricultural Research and Extension 15(4): 2012: page 92-97
Highlights
The powerful attraction exerted by certain chemical lures, parapheromones (Sivinski and Calkins 1986) on some species of tephritid fruit flies including Bactrocera dorsalis (=Dacus dorsalis) is well known
Air flow in the wind tunnel was regulated at 0.1m/sec. Behavioural responses such as the number of flies performing upwind zigzagging anemotactic flights over at least 50cm to the odour source, the total number of flies landing on the odour source and the total number of flies moved into the upwind section of the wind tunnel were recorded for 20 minutes
It is apparent from the results of the present study that methyl eugenol (ME) responsiveness of males increased with the increase of concentration (Table 1)
Summary
The powerful attraction exerted by certain chemical lures, parapheromones (Sivinski and Calkins 1986) on some species of tephritid fruit flies including Bactrocera dorsalis (=Dacus dorsalis) is well known. Methyl eugenol (3, 4 dimethoxyalyl benzene), a phenylpropanoid compound (Nishida et al 1988) is the most effective known lure attracting male oriental fruit flies. Male Bactrocera species are very strongly attracted to blossoms, leaves or ME has been shown to function as a precursor for the male sex pheromone in B. dorsalis and to increase the attractiveness of the pheromone to females (Nishida et al 1988). It elicits strong anemotaxis in male flies and, in some species, strong chemotactic feeding responses (Meats and Osborne 2000). Steiner (1952) reported that ME is capable of attracting oriental fruit flies from as far as 0.8 km. and described the characteristic and compulsive
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