Abstract

CRUZ-ESTEBAN, Samuel; HERNANDEZ-LEDESMA, Patricia; MALO, Edi A.  and  ROJAS, Julio C.. Pheromonal baits for the capture of Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in maize crops adjacent to strawberry crops. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2020, vol.36, e3612255.  Epub Aug 28, 2020. ISSN 2448-8445.  https://doi.org/10.21829/azm.2020.3612255.

The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is one of the main pests of maize and sorghum, in addition this insect begins to be a threat for strawberry crops in Michoacán, Mexico. Thus, it would be worth to have a monitoring system to detect early infestations of S. frugiperda and implement their control in time. Under this scenario, the use of traps baited with the sex pheromone may be useful to catch males. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of a pheromone lure developed from Mexican populations of S. frugiperda against four commercial lures, three formulated abroad and one in Mexico, in maize crops adjacent to strawberries ones. Additionally, we analyzed the effect of the trap color. It was found that the traps baited with lure optimized for Mexican populations (EcoTap) or with the commercial lure formulated in Mexico (Phero-SF) captured more S. frugiperda males and less non-target insects compared to traps baited with the other lures. One unexpected finding was the caught of black cutworm males, Agrotis ipsilon (Hufnagel) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), by the traps baited with EcoTap or Phero-SF lures. The trap colour did not have a significant effect on the capture of S. frugiperda or A. ipsilon males. The results obtained here may be used for monitoring or mass trapping S. frugiperda in the Mexican regions where maize and sorghum are the main crops or in organic strawberry crops that may be threatened by this polyphagous insect.

Keywords : fall armyworm; communication sexual; colour traps; Agrotis ipsilon.