Development of a phermone-based monitoring system for red striped fireworm (Aroga trialbamaculella Chamb), a pest of wild blueberries

Wild blueberries are the most important fruit crop of Canada in terms of acreage and export sales with 45% of world production coming from Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. Red Striped Fireworm (RSF) is a defoliating pest of wild blueberries and a particular concern to northeastern North America where it can reduce wild blueberry yields and contaminate production bins at harvest. The economic threat posed by RSF to wild blueberries prompts appraisal of its control. The objective of this project is to develop a pheromone-based monitoring system for RSF. Lure-based trapping trials were conducted during summers of 2009 and 2010 in wild blueberry fields of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada, to test the behavioural attraction of RSF to pheromone components (selected from other related Gelechiidae species). Field studies have identified (E)–9–tetradecenyl acetate (E9–14:OAc) and (Z)–5–dodecenyl acetate (Z5–12:OAc) as possible attractants for Chionodes abella Voucher (Family Gelechiidae) and (Z)–9–tetradecenyl acetate (Z9–14:OAc) as a possible attractant for Cucullia umbratica Linnaeus (Family Noctuidae, Subfamily Cucuillinae). Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Analysis (GCMS) of RSF gland extracts revealed possible components of the female sex pheromone. Further testing of potential components with male RSF using Gas Chromatography–Electroantennographic Detection (GC–EAD) will help identify an optimal attractant. An optimized lure for RSF trap monitoring system will enable improved RSF pest management.