Use of Insect Pheromones in Vegetable Pest Management: Successes and Struggles 235
field. However, none of the pheromone blends
was found to be attractive to the target insect pest,
M. vitrata, which implied that additional compo-
nents may be present in its pheromone, besides
the known compounds. Hence, future research
activities should focus on the identification of
these missing links in the M. vitrata pheromone
chain to develop the most effective lures.
Sex Pheromone of Cucumber Moth,
Diaphania indica (Saunders 1851)
(Lepidoptera: Crambidae)
Three sex pheromone components of D. in-
dica, viz., E11-16:Ald, EE10,12-16:Ald, and
hexadecanal (16:Ald) were already identi-
fied (Wakamura et al. 1998 ). E11-16:Ald and
EE10,12-16:Ald are the two major components.
Synthetic mixture of E11-16:Ald and EE10,12-
16:Ald attracted male moths of D. indica in the
field (Wakamura et al. 1998 ). It is interesting to
note that EE10,12-16:Ald, which is a major com-
ponent in the pheromone of M. vitrata is one of
the major components in D. indica as well. The
commercially available D. indica pheromone
lures (Qlure-DII) were purchased from Russell
IPM Company, UK. The lures were tested using
sticky delta traps in the cucumber field during
2010 at AVRDC—The World Vegetable Center.
However, the season-long trial confirmed that
the lure was not attractive to the male moths of
D. indica (Table 3 ). However, traps containing
D. indica lures overwhelmingly attracted male
moths of S. exigua. Similar trial was conducted
during 2012 in bitter-gourd field. In this trial
also, no D. indica male moths was attracted by
the pheromone lures. Although S. exigua male
moths were attracted by the Qlure-DII, it was not
significantly different from the untreated check
(traps without pheromone lures). Hence, it has
become imperative to refine the sex pheromone
lures of D. indica to use it in the IPM strategies.Aggregation Pheromone of Striped
Flea Beetle, Phyllotreta striolata
F. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)
Flea beetles ( Phyllotreta spp.) are known to pro-
duce aggregation pheromones (Peng et al. 1999 ),
and mostly they are the male-specific com-
pounds. Synthetic compounds of these aggrega-
tion pheromones attracted both sexes of the flea
beetles (Soroka et al. 2005 ). Since information
on the aggregation pheromone of P. striolata was
scanty, efforts were made to identify the aggrega-
tion pheromones in P. striolata. An active male-
specific compound from P. striolata was identi-
fied as (+)-(6R,7S)-himachala-9,11-diene. Under
laboratory conditions, the activity of this synthetic
pheromone either alone or in combination with
the host plant volatile (allyl isothiocyanate, AITC)
attracted significantly high numbers of P. striolata
(Beran et al. 2011 ). Subsequently, the synthetic ag-
gregation pheromone was evaluated either alone
or in combination with AITC against P. striolata
under field conditions on radish at AVRDC—The
World Vegetable Center during 2011. The results
indicated that the pheromone alone was ineffec-
tive in attracting the P. striolata beetles (Table 4 ).
However, the pheromone compound, when com-
bined with AITC, enhanced its attraction. The
result is also consistent with our earlier findings
(Beran et al. 2011 ). This may be due to the fact
that P. striolata aggregation pheromone mightPheromone lure Mean number of moths per trap
per week (cucumber field, 2010)Mean number of moths per trap
per week (bitter-gourd field,
2012)
D. indica S. exigua D. indica S. exigua
Qlure-DII 0.75 250.25 a 1.00 13.43
Check 1.50 11.00 b 0.57 4.43
Means within a column followed by different letters indicate significant differences
(LSD following ANOVA, p ≤ 0.05)Table 3 Mean trap catches
of Diaphania indica and
Spodoptera exigua in
cucurbit fields at AVRDC,
Taiwan