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Aggregation pheromones were isolated fromCryptolestes pusillus (Schönherr), a coleopteran pest of stored products. Porapak Q-captured beetle and frass volatiles were fractionated by preparative gas-liquid chromatography. The fractions were bioassayed with an arena olfactometer and/or with a two-choice, pitfall olfactometer. Three biologically active, male-produced compounds eliciting aggregation behavior from adultC. pusillus were isolated and identified by spectroscopic methods as (Z)-3-dodecenolide (I), (Z)-5-tetradecen-13-olide (II), and (Z,Z)-3,6-dodecadienolide (III). Compound I was the major volatile produced and was active alone. Compound II was not active alone, but synergized the response to I. Compound III was active alone at higher concentrations, but did not significantly increase the response when added to the most active mixture of I and II, and so it is probably not part of the aggregation pheromone. Pheromone production increased dramatically when the insects were aerated on a food source.

At least 26 different species of insects of quarantine significance were intercepted from 1985 to 2005 on bamboo (Bambusa spp.) garden stakes from China. Three fifths of the live insects were cerambycids in nine genera, including Chlorophorus annularis F., the bamboo borer. The current APHIS-PPQ treatment is fumigation schedule T404-d, which requires high doses of methyl bromide (MeBr) for 24 h. No specific fumigation data exist for C. annularis. Chinese and American quarantine scientists cooperated in testing to determine whether this schedule, or lower doses, would be effective as a quarantine treatment for C. annularis infesting dried bamboo poles. A lower dose based on APHIS tests for solid wood packing (SWP) failed (3/511 survivors) at 56 g/m3 for 24 h at 10.0 degrees C. We therefore tested five progressive doses at five temperatures intermediate between the lower SWP schedule and the much higher applied doses (e.g., 120 g/m3 for 24 h at 10.0 degrees C) of schedule T404-d. Fumigations of infested bamboo poles conducted in 403.2-liter chambers with 52% vol:vol loading at doses of 48, 64, 80, 96, and 112 g/m3 at 26.7, 21.1, 15.6, 10.0, and 4.4 degrees C, respectively (20 total replicates, with 4 replicates per dose), had no survivors among 2,847 larvae, 140 pupae, and 122 adults. Control replicates (three) had a total of 455 live stages (397 larvae, 31 pupae, and 27 adults). Tests conducted with a sea/land cargo container loaded to 80% capacity with bamboo poles verified the ability of the schedule to maintain effective concentrations over 24 h in commercial-sized fumigations. We propose a new bamboo quarantine treatment schedule at reduced rates of applied MeBr.