240 Kamala Jayanthi PD et al.
of integrated pest management (IPM) for a num-
ber of insect pests worldwide. Push–pull strate-
gies or stimulo-deterrent diversionary strategies
(SDDS) (= behavioral manipulation methods)
uses repellent/deterrent (push) and attractant/
stimulant (pull) stimuli to direct the movement
of pest or beneficial insects for sustainable pest
management. However, their potential is less ex-
ploited in horticulture. This may be mainly due
to lack of thorough understanding of chemical
mediated processes or chemical ecology of the
intended pests. Therefore, development of reli-
able, robust, and sustainable push–pull strate-
gies requires a clear scientific understanding
of behavioral and chemical ecology of pest, its
interactions with hosts, conspecifics and natu-
ral enemies in order to underpin key processes
that can be exploited as weak links. Moreover, to
understand/manipulate various semiochemicals
(pheromones, allelochemicals-kairomones, al-
lomones, and synnomones) and maximize their
usefulness in IPM, collaborations between ento-
mologists and chemists is essential. Presently, se-
miochemicals that induce behavioral responses to
over 1500 insect species are described (Arn et al.
1992 ). Apart, there is a growing awareness about
the complex interaction between host plants and
insects (Landolt and Phillips 1997 , Bruce and
Pickett 2011 ). Despite the importance of semio-
chemicals, there is no information available on
potential behavior modifying cues involved in
tritrophic interactions and application of this
technology for horticultural IPM in India. An
adaptive approach to take advantage of collab-
orative work between biology, chemical ecology,
physiology, analytical chemistry, and molecular
biology in order to elucidate, develop, and im-
plement the field application of semiochemicals
for the sustainable management of horticultural
insect pests is paramount for India.
Fruit Crop Pests
The major fruit crops grown in India and their
insect pests along with the status of semiochemi-
cals in their management are outlined in Table 1.
Overview of major potential fruit crop pests in
India reveals significant losses due to lepidop-
terans, coleopterans, dipterans, and homopter-
ans where the practical feasibility of isolation,
identification, and application of semiochemi-
cals is quite possible. At present, in India the
focal pest species where semiochemicals are
playing a major role in integrated management
programs are very limited. It is largely confined
to tephritid fruit flies through male annihilation
technique (MAT) in mango as well as in other
crops viz., guava, citrus (Verghese and Jayanthi
2001 ). No serious efforts have been made about
chemo-behavioral strategies of fruit flies in India
involving host kairomones and male based sex
pheromones.
Studies have revealed that visual and chemi-
cal cues play an important role in the host-finding
behavior of fruit flies (Kamala Jayanthi and Ver-
ghese 2011; Kamala Jayanthi et al. 2012 ). Since,
the host plant is the focal point for the ecologi-
cal behavior of fruit flies involving host seeking,
adult feeding, mating behavior, oviposition, and
egg development, these functions are strongly
modulated by chemical cues (Drew 1989 ). Vola-
tile fruit odors have been used successfully as at-
tractants for the apple maggot fly, Rhagoletis po-
monella (Walsh; Reissig et al. 1985 ; Jones 1988 ;
Jones and Davis 1989 ; Agnello et al. 1990 ). Vol-
atile fruit odors have also been investigated as
potential attractants for the Mediterranean fruit
fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann; Prokopy and
Vargas 1996 ; Warthen et al. 1997 ; Prokopy et al.
1998 ), the Mexican fruit fly, Anastrepha ludens
Loew (Robacker 1992 ; Robacker and Andheath
1996 ), and Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha sus-
pensa (Loew) (Nigg et al. 1994 ). However, such
studies are limited in case of Bactrocera dorsalis
complex in India (Kamala Jayanthi et al. 2012 ,
2013 , 2013a).
Apart from tephritid fruit flies, the other im-
portant pests of national importance in fruit
crops where semiochemicals can play a key
role in strengthening the existing IPM strategies
are mango stone weevil (MSW), Sternochetus
mangiferae (Fabricius), inflorescence hoppers,
Idioscopus spp, red banded caterpillar, Deonalis
albizonalis (Hampson), fruit borer, Citripestis
eutraphera (Meyrick), leaf gall midge, Procon-
tarinia matteiana Kieffer and Cecconi, inflores-
cence midge, Erosomyia indica Grover, shoot