Dichelops furcatus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) olfactory orientation toward maize seedlings depends on the volatile compound linalool

JACOBI, VANESA GISELA; FERNANDEZ PATRICIA CARINA; ZAVALA, JORGE ALBERTO

Conferencia; Animal Behavior live; 2020

In the last years D. furcatus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) has become an important pest in corn (Zea mays) crops in Argentina and Brazil. These stink bugs feed on corn seedlings by inserting its stylets, dropping its saliva and sucking the melted tissues. Thus, decreasing crop yields. Although its economic importance, there is almost no information about D. furcatus – corn seedlings interaction. For our experiments we used two commercial hybrids of corn from contrasting origins, one temperate (P1780YR) and one tropical (P30B39HR). To study D. furcatus olfactory orientation towards corn seedlings volatile blends, we performed two-choice olfactometer bioassays, and collected and analyzed volatiles released by corn seedlings through gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Although D. furcatus orientated towards volatile blends of both genotypes over clean air, stink bugs preferred blends from temperate over tropical genotypes (p< 0.05, X2 goodness of fit test). Temperate hybrids released three times more volatiles than tropical ones (p