ELECTROANTENOGRAPHICAL RESPONSE OF Bephratelloides pomorum (Fabricius, 1808) HYMENOPTERA: EURYTOMYIDAE TO FEMALE VOLATILE COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Anonacea seed borer, Bephratelloides pomorum (Fabricius, 1808) (Hymenoptera: Eurytomyidae), is an important pest that can lead to yield losses ranging from 70 to 100% . The absence of insecticides registered for B. pomorum is a factor that sharpens the scientific interest in research that seeks an efficient control method, harmless to man and the environment, such as behavioural control. The objective of this work is to evaluate the electroantennographic response of B. pomorum males. In order to obtain the insects, soursop fruits were collected in a commercial area and kept in cages until the emergence of the insects. The females were destined to the aeration process during the sexual activity period to obtain the volatile compounds and the males were kept for electroentennographic tests. The aeration dispersed compounds were retained in Porapak® Q adsorbent polymer and the desorption was done with 0.5 mL of HPLC grade hexane. For the electroantennographic tests, one of the live male antennae was removed and fixed on silver electrodes with conductive gel, using aeration extracts from 35 females. Ten antennae were used, constituting 10 repetitions, and the extracts were tested in triplicates. To evaluate the electroantennometric response of male antennae, the following treatments were investigated: hexane control and pure aeration extract. 10 μL of each treatment was placed on a strip of filter paper inside a glass pipette. The magnitude of each antennal response was measured using Syntech EAG Pro 2.0.2 (Syntech, The Netherlands) and the stimulus was generated with a Syntech CS-55 pulse duration controller of 0.5s. Data were analysed by analysis of variance and means compared by Tukey test (