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Electrophysiological and behavioral responses of Helicoverpa assulta (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to tobacco volatiles

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Abstract

The Oriental tobacco budworm moth, Helicoverpa assulta (Guenée) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a serious pest on tobacco in China. The flowering stage of the host plant is one of the most attractive stages to H. assulta for feeding and oviposition. Nine electrophysiologically active compounds in tobacco headspace at flower stage were detected by gas chromatography–electroantennographic detection (GC–EAD). These compounds were subsequently identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) as (E)-β-ocimene, octanal, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, nonanal, (Z)-3-hexenyl-2-methyl butyrate, decanal, linalool, and (E)-β-caryophyllene. The synthetic blend containing nine of the above compounds attracted mated H. assulta females from a distance by upwind oriented flight. Selected subtraction assays showed that the 4-component mixture of (E)-β-ocimene, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, nonanal, and (E)-β-caryophyllene elicited equivalent levels of attraction as the 9-component mixture. The removal of any of the four compounds from the 4-component blend resulted in a significant decrease in female upwind flight behavior.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Rui Wang for technical guidance in wind tunnel and GC–EAD experiments and Yun-Hua Yan for assistance in insect rearing. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30925026, 30921063) and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. KSCX2-EW-N-5).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jiu-Guang Sun, Ling-Qiao Huang & Chen-Zhu Wang

  2. Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Jiu-Guang Sun

  3. Institute of Zoology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Beichen West Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Chen-Zhu Wang

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  1. Jiu-Guang Sun
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  2. Ling-Qiao Huang
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Correspondence to Chen-Zhu Wang.

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Handling Editor: Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson.

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Sun, JG., Huang, LQ. & Wang, CZ. Electrophysiological and behavioral responses of Helicoverpa assulta (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) to tobacco volatiles. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 6, 375–384 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-012-9190-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-012-9190-7

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