Evidence for the presence of a female produced sex pheromone in the banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus Germar (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Behaviour-modifying chemicals like pheromones and kairomones hold a great potential in pest management.  Evidences from mating behaviour studies of the banana weevil, and from the weevil’s responses to their freeze-killed conspecifics, body washes/extracts, live conspecifics (olfactometer studies), and trapped volatiles of mature and immature adults clearly suggest that two types of pheromones are produced in this insect: a female produced sex pheromone and a male produced aggregation pheromone.  Both are perceived by olfactory means. The latter has already been isolated by earlier workers and is in use in control programs. Greater successes may however, be recorded with the control of this pest (e.g. in mating disruptions, mass trappings, pest monitoring) if the female-sex pheromone also gets finally isolated, and used in conjunction with good cultural practices.    Key words: Cosmopolites sordidus, sex pheromone, mating disruptions, bioassays, olfactometer studies, gas chromatographic profiles, electroantennogram studies.