The effects of non‐host plant essential oil volatiles on the behaviour of the pollen beetle Meligethes aeneus

Abstract

The use of semiochemicals for manipulation of the pollen beetle Meligethes aeneus (Fabricius) (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is being investigated for potential incorporation into a push-pull control strategy for this pest, which damages oilseed rape, Brassica napus L. (Brassicaceae), throughout Europe. The response of M. aeneus to non-host plant volatiles was investigated in laboratory assays to establish whether they have any effect on host plant location behaviour. Two approaches were used. First a novel, moving-air bioassay using air funnels was developed to compare the response of M. aeneus to several non-host plant essential oils. The beetles avoided the host plant flowers in the presence of nonhost volatiles, suggesting that M. aeneus uses olfactory cues in host location and /or acceptance. The results were expressed as 'repellency values' in order to compare the effects of the different oils tested. Lavender ( Lavendula angustifolia Miller) (Lamiaceae) essential oil gave the highest repellency value. In addition, a four-arm olfactometer was used to investigate olfactory responses, as this technique eliminated the influence of host plant visual and contact cues. The attraction to host plant volatiles was reduced by the addition of non-host plant volatiles, but in addition to masking the host plant volatiles, the non-host volatiles were avoided when these were presented alone. This is encouraging for the potential use of non-host plants within a push-pull strategy to reduce the pest colonisation of crops. Further testing in more realistic semi-field and field trials is underway.

Effects of the essential oil obtained from Pilocarpus spicatus Saint-Hilaire (Rutaceae) on the development of Rhodnius prolixus nymphae

“…In the same way, some Pilocarpus-obtained compounds also act as antidotes on intoxication by Datura stramonium (Salyi;Abonyi, 1994), induce spittling (Kempf, 1999) and have in vitro action against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aereus and Trypanosoma cruzi (Santos et al, 1997;Vieira et al, 2001;Mafezoli et al, 2000;Pavão et al, 2002). Essential oil extracted from a variety of host plants (Guenter, 1972) have been recently reported on account of their effects on the development and behavior of insects as Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Choi et al, 2003), Tribolium confusum (Tunc;Erler, 2003), mosquito species (Tuetun et al, 2004;Costa et al, 2005;Pimenta et al, 2006), Triatoma infestans and Rhodnius neglectus (Fournet et al, 1996;Laurent et al, 1997;Vilaseca et al, 2004), Pediculus humanus (Cestari et al, 2004), Oxyops vitiosa (Wheeler, 2005), Meligethes aeneus (Mauchline et al, 2005) and Lobesia botrana (Katerinopoulos et al, 2005). Despite the wellknown use of Rutaceae plants for a diversity of diseases, only the feeding deterrence induced in Spodoptera litoralis by some furanocoumarins obtained from Pilocarpus goudotianus (Calcagno et al, 2002) were studied in insects with economic importance.…”

Semiochemical-based alternatives to synthetic toxicant insecticides for pollen beetle management

“…Lavandula angustifolia Mill. (lavender) had the greatest repellent effect (Mauchline et al 2005) and within this complex blend of volatiles, linalool and linalyl acetate were identified as the active compounds (Mauchline et al 2008). Lavender odour caused a significant reduction in the number of adult pollen beetles in field plots if applied before crop colonisation (Mauchline et al 2013).…”

“…Biological control of the pollen beetles in the trap crop could be enhanced by attracting natural enemies using attractant lures based on host-plant volatiles (Jonsson et al 2005;Jöns-son and Anderson 2007) or volatiles from their host larvae (Straka et al 2013;Berger et al 2015), but this concept is still in the early research phase. As the push component, volatiles from lavender essential oil (Lavandula angustifolia) were found to be effective in deterring pollen beetles in laboratory bioassays (Mauchline et al 2005(Mauchline et al , 2008 and in both semi-field and field trials (Mauchline et al 2013). Analyses of data from a large-scale field plot experiment in OSR is underway to compare the efficacy of the combination of a repellent lavender spray along with a trap crop to reduce pollen beetle numbers in the main crop.…”

“…The behavioural response of pollen beetles to the volatile profile of essential oils from non-host-plants during host location was studied by Mauchline et al (2005Mauchline et al ( , 2008Mauchline et al ( , 2013. Lavandula angustifolia Mill.…”

“…It is important to understand the context in which the semiochemical is detected, as the behavioural response to an odour can be affected by its concentration (Mauchline et al 2005;Piesik et al 2013) and by visual cues (Jonsson et al 2007). A field trapping experiment showed that the magnitude of the effect of an attractant lure on trap catches of pollen beetle was dependent on the nature of the visual cue (Blight and Smart 1999); baited yellow traps caught more beetles than white traps indicating that pollen beetles have wavelength-specific preferences (Döring et al 2012).…”