The effect of short-range host odor stimuli on host fruit finding and feeding behavior of plum curculio adults (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Abstract

In laboratory assays, we investigated responses of female plum curculios (PCs),Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst), to host and nonhost fruit or leaf odor when PCs were crawling on experimental tree branchlets or twigs. In choice tests where test specimens were hung from the ends of a wooden crosspiece, PCs made significantly more visits to host plum fruit than to plum leaves, nonhost tomato fruit, wax models of plum fruit, or blanks (wire). In similar tests, PCs made significantly more visits to plum leaves compared to nonhost maple leaves or to blanks. PCs in test chambers that contained host or nonhost odor were significantly more prone to feed on wax plum models in the presence of odor from host fruit or host leaves compared to odor from nonhost fruit or leaves or a water blank. In choice tests offering alternating cluster types on an apple branchlet, PCs visited leaf clusters bearing a host apple fruit more than leaf clusters without a fruit. In tests to assay the distance at which PCs can detect an individual host fruit, PCs crawled from the central stem of an apple branchlet onto a side stem significantly more often when an apple fruit on a side stem was hung 2 cm from the central stem compared to 4 or 8 cm away. Our combined results suggest that PCs use host fruit odor to locate host fruit at close range.