Olfactory Responses and Searching Behavior of Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to volatile signals derived from carob moth larvae, Ectomyelois ceratoniae and Its Host Plant

عنوان دوره: دومین کنگره بین المللی حشره شناسی ایران

Fatemeh Shafaghi؛ Seyed Hossein Goldansaz؛ Arman Avand faghih

Adult parasitoids have several main activities for optimizing and success of their reproductive performance, the success of parasitic wasps in suppressing pest populations depends on their abil‌ity to locate hosts and, consequently, understanding the mechanisms governing host searching behaviour is critical to the successful implementation of biological control programs. In this study, the olfactory responses and searching behavior of male and female Habrobracon hebetor (Say) were investigated in Y-shaped olfactometer. The treatments included the volatile signals resulting from carob moth larvae, pest larvae wastes, healthy and infected pomegranates. The data were compared using Chi-square test. The obtained results demonstrated that the last stage larvae of carob moth in female (Z = 3.042, P = 0.0023) and male (Z = 2.263, P = 0.023), larvae wastes in female (Z = -3.43, P = 0.0006) and male (Z = -3.666, P = 0.0002), and also volatile compounds resulting from physical damages of pomegranate fruit just in females (Z = -2.000, P = 0.0455) could significantly attract parasitoid. This study shows that this parasitoid uses larval and wastes volatiles and also volatile compounds resulting from physical damages of pomegranate to find host larvae. Since natural enemies rely on a series of semiochemicals which are released from the plant and host for determining the position of host and acceptance in their searching behavior, the results of this research could be utilized to improve the biological control of carob moth by this parasitoid

volatile compounds؛ Habrobracon hebetor؛ olfactometer؛ Ectomyelois ceratoniae؛ biological control؛ pomegranate