CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Using a dual-choice olfactometer in which attracted bugs get trapped, we aim atoptimizing the performance of a CO2-free synthetic host odor blend to attracttriatomines. We first tested a CO2-free synthetic host-odor commercial lure formosquitoes consisting on ammonia, lactic acid and hexanoic acid (all triatominedetectedodors) and found it significantly attractive. This attraction proved to bethe result of a synergistic interaction between the responses to the three odors.We then developed different blends consisting on ammonium hydroxide, lacticacid and pentanoic acid varying the total mass of compounds and theirproportions. Results indicate that the proportion at which the odors were deliveredhas a major role in determining the attraction and capture level. Addition of afourth triatomine-detected host odor to one of the attractive synthetic blends didnot result in increased attraction as capture was even reduced by 60 %. Thisnegative synergy or hypoadditivity depended on the odor blend to which the newodor was added, implying variability in the stability of the response to odor blends.As expected, the building of a multicomponent attractive odor blend is not a linearprocess. In another set of experiments using IR video recordings we compared thesuitability (i.e., specificity) of different variables commonly used to measureattraction in insects.We thank Fundación Bunge y Born and ANPCyT for funding (grants FBB28/10 andPICT-PRH-2009-43, respectively).