Abstract

Nocturnal insects rely on olfaction for selection of a suitable site for oviposition. Female moths of Spodoptera littoralis have shown oviposition avoidance from caterpillar damaged cotton plant – Gossypium hirsutum – patches in dual choice bioassay. Night headspace volatile analyses showed that larval damaged cotton plants tend to emit a complex mixture of induced compounds belonging to different classes such as: green leaf volatiles (GLVs), terpenoids, as well as cis-jasmone and indole. Gas chromatographic coupled with electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) studies on headspace collections from damaged cotton plants revealed antennal response to at least eighteen compounds in gravid S. littoralis females. Electroantennographic (EAG) studies on a synthetic mixture of these antennal active coumpounds showed similar response as natural headspace. Further studies are in process to identify the behaviourally active components, affecting the oviposition decision in S. littoralis females, under the application of different synthetic mixtures of the peripherally detected compounds from caterpillar damaged cotton plants

Published in

Book title: ISCE 2010 book of abstracts

Conference

International Society of Chemical Ecology : 26th Annual Meeting

Authors' information