Sex Pheromones of Lepidoptera. 1 XXXII. Disruption of Intraspecific Pheromone Communication in Various Species of Lepidoptera by Permeation of the Air with Looplure or Hexalure 2
Experiments were conducted with 10 species representing 4 families of Lepidoptera to evaluate looplure ((Z)-7-dodecen-1-ol acetate, the sex pheromone of Trichoplusia ni (Hübner)) and hexalure ((Z)-7-hexadecen-1-ol acetate, an attractant for males of Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders)) as agents for the disruption of sex pheromone communication. The species studied were: family Noctuidae— T. ni, Pseudoplusia includens Walker, Autographa californica (Speyer), Heliothis zea (Boddie), H. virescens (F.), Spodoptera exigua (Hübner) and S. ornithogalli Guenée; family Lyonetiidae— Bucculatrix thurberiella Busck; family Tortricidae— Platynota stultana Walsingham: and family Gelechiidae—P. gossypiella. Males of T. ni, A. californica , and P. includens were completely prevented from orienting to their respective pheromone releasing females in field plots containing high levels of looplure. Under these conditions, a high percentage of disruption of intraspecific pheromone communication also occurred between males and females of H. zea, H. virescens, S. ornithogalli , and P. gossypiella . Similarly, when hexalure was released into the atomsphere, a disruption of communication between males and females of several of these species was obtained.