Pest Management Science (2016) 72, 1959-1964

Xian-Fu Liu, Hong-Hao Chen, Jun-Kai Li, Rong Zhang, Ted C.J. Turlings and Li Chen (2016)
Volatiles released by Chinese liquorice roots mediate host location behaviour by neonate Porphyrophora sophorae (Hemiptera: Margarodidae)
Pest Management Science 72 (10), 1959-1964
Abstract:
BACKGROUND
The cochineal scale, Porphyrophora sophorae (Hemiptera: Coccoidea, Margarodidae), is one of the most serious arthropod pests of Chinese liquorice, Glycyrrhiza uralensis (Fabaceae), an important medicinal herb. The adult females tend to deposit the ovisacs in soil relatively far away from liquorice plants. After hatching, neonates move out of the soil and may use chemical cues to search for new hosts.
RESULTS
We collected and analysed the volatiles from soils with and without liquorice roots, and chromatographic profiles revealed hexanal, β-pinene and hexanol as potential host-finding cues for P. sphorae. The attractiveness of these compounds to neonates was studied in the laboratory using four-arm olfactometer bioassays. The larvae showed a clear preference for β-pinene over hexanal and hexanol, as well as all possible combinations of the three compounds. In addition, a field experiment confirmed that β-pinene was significantly more attractive than hexanal and hexanol.
CONCLUSION
Newly eclosed larvae of P. sphorae exploit root volatiles as chemical cues to locate their host plant. β-Pinene proved to be the major chemical cue used by P. sphorae neonates searching for roots of their host plant.
(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): Ted C.J. Turlings

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.
	Porphyrophora sophorae	Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza)