Field trials were conducted in coffee and citrus fields near Antigua, Guatemala to evaluate the importance of 1,4 diaminobutane (putrescine) in a food-based, female-biased synthetic bait composed of ammonium acetate, trimethylamine and putrescine, which is used in traps for adults of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). Plastic McPhail traps were baited with one of the following four combinations of lures: ammonium acetate and putrescine; ammonium acetate and trimethylamine; putrescine and trimethylamine; and ammonium acetate, putrescine and trimethylamine. There were approximately ten times more C. capitata trapped in coffee than in citrus. Traps without ammonium acetate captured very few flies in either host. Traps baited with ammonium acetate and putrescine captured an intermediate percentage of fruit flies. Traps baited with ammonium acetate and trimethylamine with or without putrescine captured the highest percentage of fruit flies, and differences in population levels affected relative trapping efficiency of these traps for both males and females.
Species 1: Diptera Tephritidae Ceratitis capitata (Mediterranean fruit fly)
Keywords: synthetic attractant, trap
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