Reinvestigation of Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Sex Pheromone for Improved Attractiveness and Greater Specificity

Abstract

Cactoblastis cactorum (Berg.) is recognized as an invasive species in the Caribbean, the United States, and Mexico. Prior work using hexane extracts of sex glands showed that the sex pheromone of this species has 54% of (Z, E) -9.12 -14: acetate, 42% of (Z, E) -9.12 -14:OH and 4% of Z9-14: Ac. Although traps baited with this mixture are efectively to atract males of the cactus moth, it is necessary to determine whether the pheromone can be optimized and to determinate if female diet may impact pheromone composition. Experiments with insects were made at the USDA-ARS Crop in Tifton, Georgia, where there is a colony maintained on cactus and another on an artiicial diet. Solidphase microextraction (SPME) was used to collect pheromones in the headspace above a single calling female and by rubbing the excised female sex gland with SPME ibers. Rubbing the gland directly with SPME iber revealed that the pheromone consists of the compounds cited above plus Z9-14:Ac. With dynamic aeration and capture of volatiles with iber only captured two compounds. In addition, our results indicated that natural or artiicial diet does not inluence the composition of the sex pheromone.

Larval Pheromone Disrupts Pre-Excavation Aggregation of Cactoblastis cactorum (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Neonates Precipitating Colony Collapse

“…To contain the insect in ecologically sensitive and agricultural areas, research has been directed at developing bio-rational techniques that have proven successful in the mitigation of other pest species. These techniques include the use of sterile insect releases (Hight & Carpenter 2016), trapping with a synthetic sex pheromone to monitor populations in the field (Bloem et al 2005;Heath et al 2006;Cibrián-Tovar et al 2017), and the identification and study of an Argentine larval parasitoid (Apanteles opuntiarum Martínez & Berta; Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a potential biological control agent (Varone et al 2015). Here we report the results of a pilot study undertaken to determine the feasibility of managing C. cactorum using a relatively novel, eco-sensitive approach that employs the use of a larval pheromone.…”