Comparative laboratory methods for assaying behavioural responses of Rhagoletis pomonella flies to host marking pheromone
1988
Prokopy, R.J. (Massachusetts Univ., Amherst (USA). Dept. of Entomology) | Powers, P.J. | Heath, R.R. | Dueben, B.D. | Tumlinson, J.H.
In tests on Rhagoletis pomonella flies, we compared previously-reported laboratory approaches used in assaying behavioral responses of tephritid flies to host marking pheromone with new approaches described here. The foremost criterion used in choosing the most effective assay approach was that of a very high degree of fly discrimination between pheromone-treated and untreated oviposition sites. Other critera accentuated a comparatively low amount of time, a low amount of pheromone, a low number of flies, and a low number of oviposition sites (real or artificial fruit) required to conduct an assay. The method that proved to fulfill these criteria to the greatest degree involved: placing 15 treated Crataegus virids host fruit and 15 untreated C. viridis fruit simultaneously in a test cage with a single continuously-observed female for up to 60 min., recording whether the female accepted for oviposition or rejected each fruit visited, and removing the female from each accepted fruit just before initiation of ovipositor dragging and deposition of contamination marking pheromone. In conducting assays associated with chemical purification and identification of pheromonal components, we found this method to be very effective when the 15 treated fruit consisted of 5 sets of 3 fruit, one set treated with crude pheromone (as a standard) and each of the other sets treated with a different chromatographic fraction of pheromone
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