Journal of Applied Entomology (2018) 142, 457-464

R.N.C. Guedes, S. Corbett, M. Rodriguez, J.J. Goto and S.S. Walse (2018)
Pesticide-mediated disruption of spotted wing Drosophila flight response to raspberries
Journal of Applied Entomology 142 (5), 457-464
Abstract: The disruption of chemical communication between insects and host plants may take place due to an interference with the signal-emitting host plant, or the signal-receiving insect, compromising the signal production and emission, or its reception and processing. Anthropogenic compounds, in general, and pesticides, in particular, may impair the chemical communication that mediates host location by insects. Five different pesticides (the insecticides malathion, pyrethrins and spinetoram, and the fungicides fenhexamid and pyrimethanil) were applied at their field rates to raspberry fruits, or Petri dishes enclosing adult spotted wing Drosophila (SWD; Drosophila suzukii), and the attraction to fruit volatiles was evaluated in a series of two-choice flight bioassays. The application of raspberry fruit with pesticides did not statistically affect attraction of unexposed adults, with exceptions being the spinetoram treatment, which led to mild insect avoidance, and the pyrethrin treatment, which resulted in slightly preferential attraction. In contrast, adults sublethally exposed to the pesticides had their flight take-off impaired by the insecticides, but not by the fungicides. Furthermore, all pesticides, and particularly the insecticides, compromised the upwind capture of adults. Thus, the treatment with pesticides may indeed interfere with the flight response of SWD to host volatiles, particularly when the insects were previously exposed to pesticides. These findings are suggestive of the potential for sublethal insecticidal exposures to aid pest control and also provide evidence that pesticide use may compromise sampling/trapping strategies for this pest species that are based on attraction to host volatiles.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Raul Narciso C. Guedes

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Drosophila suzukii	Raspberry/blackberry (Rubus)