Influence of Rainfall, Sex Ratio, and Physiological Condition of Boll Weevils 1 on Their Response to Pheromone Traps 2 , 3

Abstract

Tests with traps baited with male Anthonomus grandis Boheman indicated that early-spring temperature influenced emergence of overwintered weevils but that rainfall had more influence as temperatures increased. Since higher percentages of males than females were captured early in the spring and the reverse became true later, the pheromone may serve initially as an aggregating factor and then subsequently as a true sex attractant. Most weevils emerged in the spring with little fat reserve, but the variation in the amount of fat reserve among individuals may account for the emergence of boll weevils over such an extended period.