PHEROMONE COMMUNICATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY (Ceratitis capitata Weid.)

Abstract

Although trimedlure is a relatively cheap attractant for medfly, it has the disadvantages that it usually attracts only males, is not sufficiently active to use in male annihilation techniques, and when used as a lure in sticky traps gives rise to a high variance in catches. For example, P.S. Baker (unpublished results) showed that Jackson traps in Mexican orchards caught between 0.007 and 105 flies per trap per week following release of 500–1000 sterile flies between each trap at a trap spacing of 20–50m. Pheromones offer a possible solution to the problem of increasing the efficiency of monitoring and detection traps. A number of pheromone components have recently been isolated and identified from male flies at the University of Southampton (R.Baker et al, 1985). The role of these components in communication has subsequently been investigated in wind-tunnel tests, and field evaluation of various blends has begun in Spain (Howse & Foda, unpublished).