Mating disruption of the introduced forest pest Megaplatypus mutatus in poplar and frutal plantations in Italy: development of controlled release formulation and first trial.

H. FUNES, P.GONZALEZ AUDINO, E. ZERBA.

Neuchatel, Suiza

Congreso; 25th International Society Chemical Ecology Annual Meeting; 2009

Megaplatypus mutatus (Chapuis), an ambrosia beetle native to South America, attacks standing live trees of a wide range of forest and fruit tree species, particularly damaging to commercial poplar and hazelnut plantations. In 2000, M. mutatus was discovered established in Italy, in the Province of Caserta, near Naples. Our lab identified pheromonal components (1,2) and performed the first trial to monitor M. mutatus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using pheromonal compounds formulated in reservoir controlled release systems and obtained good results. Taking into account that the beetle is relatively immobile, that males are monogamous, and that the pheromones are of low commercial cost, stable in field conditions and can be formulated in controlled releases systems with relatively high release rates, we evaluated the potential management by disruption of communication between the sexes through application of male pheromone in infested poplar and fruit trees plantations of Caserta Province, Italy. We developed plastic pheromone reservoir dispensers for sulcatol, sulcatone and 3-pentanol with zero order kinetics to be deployed in the field during the females flying period.We worked in two highly infested plantations of poplars (Populus X euramericana) and hazelnut trees (Corylus avellana) in Caserta, Italy. We checked that  the initial level of attack (number of active galleries) was non significantly different in selected treated and control areas. We determined the beginning of the flying period using pheromone baited traps, and deployed pheromone devices of sulcatol, 3-pentanol and sulcatone with release rates of 79,3 91,2 and 63 mg/day respectively. After the flying period of females, we re-evaluated the level of attack in control and treated areas and observed that the number of galleries with effective mating per tree in treated areas was significantly lower than in control one, both for poplar plantation (0.24 and 0.68 respectively) and for hazelnuts plantations (0.92 and 2.1 respectively).