Evidence for a Sex Attractant in Females of the Red Pine Scale

Abstract

A flight chamber designed to study the flight behavior of aphids proved to be an ideal apparatus for the study. Males of the red pine scale, Matsucoccus resinosae bean and Godwin, were highly attracted to females held in cages at the top of the flight chamber. Contrary to previous observations, the males were capable of sustained flight. As further evidence that the females produce a volatile sex attractant, the males were attracted to bits of fluff produced by unmated females, to areas on filter paper where the females rested, and where females were crushed on filter paper. This is apparently the 1st report of a female sex attractant in the Homoptera and of a true sex lure in the Hemiptera,.