Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 9:05 AM
0105

Re-evaluation of the sex pheromone of male cabbage looper, Trichoplusia ni

Christelle Guedot, cguedot@yarl.ars.usda.gov1, Constance L Smithhisler, csmithhisler@yarl.ars.usda.gov1, Jocelyn G. Millar, millar@ucr.edu2, and Peter J Landolt, peter.landolt@ars.usda.gov1. (1) USDA-ARS, 5230 Konnowac Pass Road, Wapato, WA, (2) University of California - Riverside, Department of Entomology, 3401 Watkins Drive, Riverside, CA

Male cabbage loopers, Trichoplusia ni, produce a sex pheromone consisting of (S)-(+)-linalool, p-cresol, and m-cresol. Demonstrations of attractiveness of this blend in the field require release rates that appear to be very large compared to the amounts of pheromone released by males. We hypothesize that other unidentified components of the male pheromone may be required for optimum attractiveness, and at much lower release rates. We therefore reanalyzed the composition of the male cabbage looper sex pheromone. Using gas chromatographic analyses coupled with electroantennographic detection, we determined that female cabbage looper antennae responded to five chemicals found in male hairpencil extracts, in addition to the (S)-(+)-linalool and cresols of the prior identified blend. Flight tunnel assays comparing this new multi-component blend to the previously described sex pheromone blend are ongoing.


Species 1: Lepidoptera Noctuidae Trichoplusia ni (cabbage looper)