The cereal leaf beetle, Oulema melanopus, is a serious pest of wheat, oats, and barley. Originally from Europe and Asia, the beetle was first found in the United States in southwestern Michigan in 1962 and has slowly continued to expand its range to include most States east of the Mississippi River. Recently, damaging populations have been reported in the Southeast and some Middle Atlantic States. Current control efforts are focused on the introduction of imported natural enemies. The chemical communication of this leaf beetle was unstudied and no pheromone has been reported. Obtaining a pheromone may help current control efforts by monitoring the expanding populations of cereal leaf beetles. We report here the isolation and chemical identification of a male-specific compound that is electrophysiologically active on both male and female antennae.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA