Short range attraction of Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) sterile males to six commercially available plant essential oils

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 1 - 7, 05.03.2017

Nancy D. Epsky Jerome Niogret

Abstract

Plant essential oils have a number of roles in insect pest management. For male Ceratitis capitata, this includes use of angelica seed
oil as long range attractants and ginger root oil, which is exposure to sterile males to increase mating success. This is also called as
aromatherapy in entomology? Neither of these plants are hosts for C. capitata and the chemical basis for these effects is unknown.
Small cage bioassays were conducted to test short range attraction of sterile males to essential oils such as angelica oil, ginger root
oil, Manuka oil, orange oil, cubeb oil, and tea tree oil. Previous research found all of these oils attracted males when undiluted oil (5
μL) was tested. Herein we compared attraction to undiluted and 100, 10, and 1 μg/μL diluted concentrations with n-hexane to
determine if concentration affected short-range attraction, respectively. Undiluted angelica seed oil, cubeb oil and manuka oil
attracted more males than dilutions of the same oils, however more males were attracted to orange oil and tea tree oil that was
diluted to 100 μg/μL, and to ginger root oil that was diluted to 10 μg/μL. Overall, the highest attraction of sterile males (53%) was to
tea tree oil (500 μg). Additional studies are needed to determine the chemicals responsible for this attraction, but bioassays of short
range attraction to tea tree oil may be useful for quality control assessment of sterile males used in the sterile insect technique for
pest control.

Keywords

Mediterranean fruit fly, attractant, tea tree oil

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