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Analysis of orientation behaviour of Tribolium castaneum and T. confusum to synthetic aggregation pheromone
Author(s) -
ObengOfori D.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
entomologia experimentalis et applicata
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.765
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1570-7458
pISSN - 0013-8703
DOI - 10.1111/j.1570-7458.1991.tb01531.x
Subject(s) - pheromone , olfactometer , biology , attraction , orientation (vector space) , sex pheromone , pest analysis , plume , ecology , zoology , botany , physics , geometry , meteorology , linguistics , philosophy , mathematics , host (biology)
Adult male T. castaneum (Herbst) and T. confusum (du Val) secretes an aggregation pheromone that is attractive to both sexes. Orientation behaviour of the two Tribolium species responding to different concentrations of synthetic aggregation pheromone in still and moving air was studied in an 2.5 m × 0.4 m olfactometer. Analysis of Tribolium tracks indicated that the aggregation pheromone stimulated the beetles to walk faster at higher concentrations to increase the frequency and magnitude of turning and to decrease track reversal distances and distances between turns. The mean walking speed of both species was lowest at the highest air speed. The behavioural responses of the beetles to the pheromone in still and moving air were similar, indicating chemotaxis as the major orientation mechanism used by both species to locate an odour source. The beetles showed greater orientation efficiency within a discrete pheromone plume than a diffuse plume.