title: Behavioral response of male white peach scale to the sex pheromone, (R,Z)-3,9,-dimethyl-6-isopropenyl-3,9-decadien-1-ol propionate and corresponding alcohol.
abstract: Males of the white peach scale,Pseudaulacaspis pentagona (Tar-gioni-Tozzetti), in Florida differ from this scale in France in their responses to putative pheromonal chemicals presented in a laboratory bioassay. Males from Florida were attracted to, and exhibited sexual (coputatory) behaviors at, the locus of evaporation of (R,Z)-3,9-dimethyl-6-isopropenyl-3,9-deca-dien-1-ol propionate (P) (previously identified from effluvia of Florida females). Addition of the corresponding primary alcohol (A) to the propionate did not alter the attraction of Florida males to the synthetic P and did not alter their sexual responses from those exhibited by males exposed to P alone. In contrast, the effluvia from French scales has been reported to contain P and A, and the alcohol has been reported in laboratory studies to be required to release sexual behavior in French males. This suggests that the conspecific status of the scale in Florida and France should be reexamined. Field trap baits with 2.5 μg of a 1∶ 1 mixture of P and A captured significantly fewer Florida males than traps baited with 1.25 μg of P alone, but traps similarly baited with 0.125 μg of each material captured the same number of insects as traps baited with 0.125 μg of P alone.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Insect Attractants, Behavior and Basic Biology Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, 32604, Gainesville, Florida.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: McLaughlin