The Canadian Entomologist (2013) 145, 82-87

Virginia Hock, Gérald Chouinard, Éric Lucas and Daniel Cormier (2013)
Mites affect plum curculio (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) behavioural responses to attractive volatiles
The Canadian Entomologist 145 (1), 82-87
Abstract: An infestation of Histiostoma Kramer sp. mites (Acari: Histiostomatidae) occurred in rearing colonies of the univoltine strain of plum curculio (PC), Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), established in 2010 in southern Québec, Canada. Tests conducted in a two-choice still-air vertical olfactometer with mite-infested and noninfested PC revealed that the number of beetles responding by walking towards normally attractive synthetic and natural odours was significantly lower for those infested with mites. Those mite-infested curculios that did discriminate between test odours and odour-free air all responded positively to the test volatiles, similar to the behaviour of noninfested insects. This indicates that mites affect PC ability to physically move towards attractive volatiles but not odour preference.
(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): Virginia Hock, Éric Lucas

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
rearing/culturing/mass production

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Conotrachelus nenuphar