Journal of Pest Science (2021) 94, 871-883

Giacomo Cavaletto, Massimo Faccoli, Lorenzo Marini, Johannes Spaethe, Filippo Giannone, Simone Moino and Davide Rassati (2021)
Exploiting trap color to improve surveys of longhorn beetles
Journal of Pest Science 94 (3), 871-883
Abstract: Longhorn beetles are commonly moved among continents within wood packaging materials used in trades. Visual inspections carried out at points of entry often fail to detect exotic longhorn beetles as infested materials may have little or no sign of colonization. Black-colored traps baited with pheromones and host volatiles are thus used to improve chances of detection. Here we tested whether existing surveillance protocols for longhorn beetles can be further improved using trap colors different than black. Baited traps of eight different colors (i.e., grey, yellow, green, red, blue, brown, purple and black) were deployed in a randomized complete block design at 16 sites in northern Italy in 2019. A total of 6,001 individuals from 56 longhorn beetle species were trapped. In general, yellow and blue traps caught a significantly higher number of longhorn beetle species than black traps. In addition, trap color significantly affected species richness and abundance at the subfamily and species level, with mixed response mostly linked to the habit of visiting flowers for food. Flower-visiting longhorn beetles mainly exhibited clear preference for flower-related colors, i.e., yellow, green and blue, whereas non-flower-visiting species were more attracted by dark and long-wavelength-dominated colors, like red and brown. Our results clearly indicate that generic surveillance programs should not rely exclusively on black traps and that the use of more trap colors can strongly improve the chance of detecting native and exotic longhorn beetles potentially moved with trades.
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Database assignments for author(s): Massimo Faccoli, Lorenzo Marini, Davide Rassati

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pheromones/attractants/traps
surveys/sampling/distribution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phymatodes testaceus		Italy
	Cerambyx scopolii		Italy
	Anaglyptus mysticus		Italy
	Neoclytus acuminatus		Italy