Journal of Chemical Ecology (1997) 23, 2599-2607

A. Quiroz, J. Pettersson, J.A. Pickett, L.J. Wadhams and H.M. Niemeyer (1997)
Semiochemicals mediating spacing behavior of bird cherry-oat aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi feeding on cereals
Journal of Chemical Ecology 23 (11), 2599-2607
Abstract: Olfactometry using an apterous individual of Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) showed an arresting effect by volatiles from a wheat seedling and a repellent effect by volatiles from a wheat seedling infested with aphids at a high population density (ca. 9 aphids/cm²). Four compounds, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, (-)- and (+)-6-methyl-5-hepten-2-ol, and 2-tridecanone, were identified by GC-MS in air entrainments from the wheat seedlings with high aphid density but not from the wheat seedlings alone. The mixture of the four compounds in the natural proportion counteracted the attractivity of the volatiles from the intact uninfested wheat seedling. The likely role of these compounds in the spacing behavior of this aphid species, when present in high densities on wheat, is discussed.
(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): Hermann M. Niemeyer, John A. Pickett

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
environment - cropping system/rotation
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Rhopalosiphum padi	Wheat (Triticum)