Investigation of volatiles from citrus plants with potential for use in integrated management of Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae)

With the aim of searching for volatile compounds to use in behavioral management of Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae), the response of these insects was assessed against the substances released by sweet orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck], variety ‘Pera’, grafted on Rangpur (C. limonia Osbeck), healthy and Huanglongbing (HLB) symptomatic plants. Plant volatiles as well as plant extracts were tested in Y-tube olfactometer assays and analyzed by GC-MS. Only females were attracted to plant volatiles and extracts and they preferred those from HLB-infected plants. A total of 47 compounds was found in the extracts from healthy and infected plants, from which 11 [hexanal; α-thujene; α-pinene; sabinene; β-myrcene; α-terpinene; limonene; linalool; compound #37 (not identified); β-elemene; and β-coapene] were present in higher amounts in infected plant extracts. Three of these volatiles (sabinene, linalool and β-elemene) represented major compounds in both infected and healthy plant blend extracts. These three compounds, as well as a standard substance used for attraction (methyl salicylate), were tested in different concentrations and mixtures in laboratory, greenhouse and field. The effect of these substances was dependent on its concentration and, although limonene changed female behavioral response, only methyl salicylate and linalool were attractive. In the laboratory, the mixture of these two compounds showed a synergistic effect in attracting females and, in greenhouse, the addition of linalool to citrus plants increased the attractiveness of plants to adult insects, suggesting an important role for these compounds in the host selection process by the insect. These results provide novel information about attractants to D. citri with the aim of developing a behavioral management approach of the insect vector for Liberibacter, bacteria associated to HLB, the most important citrus disease worldwide.