Environmental Entomology (1984) 13, 675-678

Daniel T. Quiring and Jeremy N. McNeil (1984)
Intraspecific larval competition reduces efficacy of oviposition-deterring pheromone in the alfalfa blotch leafminer, Agromyza frontella (Diptera: Agromyzidae)
Environmental Entomology 13 (3), 675-678
Abstract: Small Agromyza frontella females (<450 µg), resulting from intense larval competition or reared individually on small alfalfa leaflets, produce an oviposition-deterring pheromone (ODP) that is less effective than that produced by large (>800 µg) females. Experiments testing the efficacy of aqueous abdomen extracts from large females with different histories of feeding activity and from females of different sizes, together with comparisons of both feeding and marking behavior of large and small females, provided strong evidence that this difference is due to the quantity of pheromone deposited because: (i) ODP production by A. frontella is directly related to feeding activity, (ii) small females feed and mark significantly less than large ones, and (iii) the acceptance or rejection of marked leaflets follows a dose-dependent response. The possible ecological implications of such differences in pheromone production are discussed.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): Dan T. Quiring, Jeremy N. McNeil

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pheromones/attractants/traps
environment - cropping system/rotation

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Agromyza frontella