Sex Pheromone Multicomponents Of Indian Meal Moth Plodia Interpunctella In China

The Indian meal moth (IMM) , Plodia interpunctella Hübner (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae),a world wide pest, is considered one of the most serious insect pests infesting stored grains, nuts, dried fruits, legumes, and other food products. This pest has been the target of numerous studies aimed at developing semiochemical-based monitoring and control programs because of the limited number of pesticides available for control of pests in food storage facilities. Because of increasing environmental and human health concerns, the use of chemical pesticides has been restricted for control of this pest in food storage facilities. Recent advances in the use of biorational methods such as pheromones provide a new effective way to deal with such a problem. A combination of pheromone-based monitoring systems with mass trapping or mating disruption may eventually be used for the control of pests in food storage facilities, instead of using conventional chemical pesticides with associated health hazards. The first pheromone component identified from female P. interpunctella was the major sex pheromone component,Z9, E12-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9,E12-14:OAc) (ZETA), and this compound was reported to be very attractive to conspecific males, and subsequently identified Z9,E12-tetradecadienol(Z9,E12-14:OH) as an additional pheromone component in the extract of females. It was found that the alcohol increased the behavioural responses of male P. interpunctella when presented together with Z9,E12-14:OAc. A third pheromone component candidate, Z9,E12-retradecadienal(Z9,E12-14:Ald), was identified more recently. A forth EAG-active compound was identified as Z9-tetradecenyl acetate(Z9-14:OAc). Despite the success in identification of pheromone compounds from P. interpunctella, and the efficiency of male capture using the bait with the major component Z9, E12-14:OAc alone, the pheromone system of this species is far from fully understood. The discovery of new, behaviorally important multicomponents could increase the trapping efficiency, and contribute to the control of this stored-product pest by mass trapping or mating disruption. The purpose of the present study was thus to find secondary pheromone multicomponents candidates and to investigate their effects on male attraction. Different combinations of secondary pheromone multicomponents candidates were tested in a wind tunnel along with the previously known primary pheromone component.The analytical results of the single sex pheromone gland extract of calling female of P. interpunctella by using the gas chromatography (GC) and the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of showed that there were four components: Z9,E12-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9,E12-14:OAc,A) ;Z9,E12-tetradecadien-1-ol (Z9 , E12-14:OH, B) ; Z9,E12-tetradecadien-1-al (Z9 ,E12-14:Ald,C) and (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (Z9-14:OAc,D). The ratio of four components in female sex pheromone gland of P. interpunctella was A: B: C: D = 100:22:12:9.The Specificity of Sex pheromone communication channel of P. interpunctella was characterized by strict regulation of the multicomponent blents of A+B+C+D. The results in the wind tunnel showed that the response of male P. interpunctella to a four-component blend (A:B:C:D=8:2:1:0.8) was not significantly different from the response to female sex pheromone gland extracts.