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EVIDENCE FOR A SEX PHEROMONE IN THE APPLE BROWN BUG, ATRACTOTOMUS MALI (MEYER) (HETEROPTERA: MIRIDAE)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

Robert F. Smith
Affiliation:
Agriculture Canada Research Station, Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4N 1J5
Sonia O. Gaul
Affiliation:
Agriculture Canada Research Station, Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4N 1J5
John H. Borden
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
Harold D. Pierce Jr.
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6

Extract

The apple brown bug, Atractotomus mali (Meyer), is an economic pest of apple in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia (Rogers 1990). Feeding on developing fruit of sensitive apple varieties induces persistent corky scar tissue that reduces the quality of affected fruit. Forty-five percent of Annapolis Valley apple orchards monitored in 1992 required chemical insecticide applications to control the pest complex of A. mali and the mullein bug, Campylomma verbasci (Meyer) (Craig 1992).

Female-produced sex pheromones occur in several mirid species, including the mullein bug (Smith et al. 1991) and Lygocoris communis (Knight) (Boivin and Stewart 1982). The sex pheromone of C. verbasci has been identified as a 16: 1 blend of butyl butyrate and crotyl butyrate (Smith et al. 1991). Our objective was to determine if a sex pheromone occurs in A. mali.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1994

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