Grape berry moth is a key, direct pest of grapes in the Northeastern USA. Although pheromone traps are available to monitor the two to four flights, there is often poor correspondence between trap catches of males and egg laying activity. Hence, we have been investigating the volatiles used by female moths to locate hosts as a starting point for developing a trap to better determine phenology of females. Mated and unmated females were flown to young shoot tips, older leaves, flower clusters, green fruit and ripe fruit of concord grapevines in a flight tunnel. We found shoot tips to be the most attractive relative to non-host controls, followed by older leaves and green fruit. Ripe fruit and flower clusters were only slightly more attractive than controls. GC-EAD evaluations of shoot tips revealed approximately 14 active compounds in four classes. Female moths were flown to different combinations of these active compounds to identify potential candidate volatile blends to further test in the field.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Tortricidae Endopiza viteana (grape berry moth)
Keywords: Kairomone, fruit pest
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section Cd. Behavior and Ecology
Back to Ten-Minute Papers, Section Ca, Cb, Cc, Cd, Ce, and Cf
Back to The 2003 ESA Annual Meeting and Exhibition