Volatile compounds from young peach shoots attract males of oriental fruit moth in the field

Abstract

The oriental fruit moth (OFM) is one of the most serious pests of commercial fruit orchards worldwide. Newly planted peach trees in particular, can be very attractive for mated OFM females for oviposition. Samples of airborne host plant volatiles from intact young peach shoot tips and old leaves of the same potted plants were collected and analyzed with a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. Chemicals present in young shoot tips, but not in old leaves, were used for field trials. Moth capture by traps with the synthetic chemicals was compared to that of the standard terpinyl acetate (TA) food trap. The TA food trap caught OFM males and mated females, but tested synthetic chemicals trapped only OFM males. We observed that the mixture of (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate: (E)-β-ocimene: (E)-β-farnesene in proportion 1:2:2 attracted OFM males. Further, 1 mg of (E)-β-ocimene, and that of (E)-β-farnesene also attracted OFM males.