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Mate searching in the scale insect, Dactylopius coccus (Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Dactylopiidae)

2005; Institute of Entomology; Volume: 102; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.14411/eje.2005.045

1802-8829

Luis C. Rodríguez, Eric Faúndez, Hermann M. Niemeyer,

Insect Utilization and Effects

Dactylopius coccus is a sessile scale insect living on cladodes of Opuntia ficus indica which has commercial importance as a source of carminic acid.We herein present behavioural evidence of the existence of a sex pheromone in D. coccus, based on olfactometric experiments using both biological sources of odours and collected chemical extracts. 305< 0.01 10.24 ± 3.74 1.53 ± 1.66 Extract of volatiles collected from recently emerged females vs. Solvent < 0.01 8.26 ± 2.77 1.95 ± 2.32 Recently emerged females vs. Blank < 0.03 7.70 ± 3.84 3.75 ± 2.85 Cladode with recently emerged females vs. Cladode with ovipositing females < 0.01 10.02 ± 2.23 1.18 ± 1.28 Cladode with coccid colony vs. Uninfested cladode 0.852 5.10 ± 4.20 4.79 ± 2.96 Cladode vs. Nothing p Average time in olfactometer arm (min) Contrasting stimuli TABLE 1. Olfactometric response of males of Dactylopius coccus towards different stimuli.In all cases, n = 15.Level of accepted significance: p < 0.05, Wilcoxon test for paired comparisons.