Foto: Nagy Z. L.

Applied chemical ecology ofApplied chemical ecology ofcetoniin scarabs (Coleoptera:cetoniin scarabs (Coleoptera:

Scarabaeidae)Scarabaeidae)

MiklMiklóós Ts TóóththPlant Protection Institute MTA ATK, Budapest, HungaryPlant Protection Institute MTA ATK, Budapest, Hungary

Presented at the IOBC/WPRS "Semio-chemicals: the Essence of Green PestControl" Conference, Bursa, Turkey 1-5October 2012.

Foto: J. Razov

Foto: Salamon P.

Foto: Molnár B.

Cetonia a.aurata

Potosia aeruginosa

Potosiacuprea

ru.naturekight.ru

Cetoniin scarabs occasionally can swarm in very large numbers and theirdamage is not easy to avert. They damage flowers and ripening fruit.

Oxythyreacinctella

Foto: Vuts J.

Epicometis (Tropinota) hirta is one of the most abundant pest species ofthe subfamily in Europe and the Middle East.

Foto:I. Sivcev

Apart from different fruit trees, E. hirta can be a devastating pest ofstrawberries and other berries as well, damaging the flowers,

Foto:I. Sivcev

Foto:I. Sivcev

or even ripening fruits, causing yield loss and malformed fruits whichcannot be marketed.

Foto:I. Sivcev

Fotó: Nagy Z. L.

An attractant baited trap could be a useful tool in detection, monitoring,and even perhaps in mass trapping (for direct control) of the pest.

But, how to make one???(without knowledge of a pheromone)

Lets look for floral attractants instead!!!

4

Airstreaminto whichstimulus is

given

insect antenna

EAG response evoked by astimulus

Electroanennograms(EAG):

glass capillaryelectrodes

To select candidate attractants, EAG screenings of synthetics could behelpful.

Foto:I. Moénár B.

4

Airstreaminto whichstimulus is

given

insect antenna

EAG response evoked by astimulus

Electroanennograms(EAG):

glass capillaryelectrodes

Foto:I. Moénár B.

With scarabs, special antennnal preparation is necessary.

2-m

ethy

l-1-

prop

anol

2-ph

enyl

etha

nol

4-m

etho

xyph

en. a

lcoh

.

anis

yl a

cet.

benz

ald.

benz

.aac

et.

banz

yl a

lcoh

.

ß-io

none

(E)-

cinn

.ace

t.

(E)-

cinn

.alc

oh.

euge

nol

gera

niol

isoa

myl

-alc

oh.

isoa

myl

-ace

t.

isob

utyl

-ace

t.

isos

afro

l(+

)-la

vand

ulol

linal

ool

met

hyl a

nthr

an.

3-m

eth.

euge

nol

met

h. s

alic

.

p-m

etho

x.-c

inn.

/ald

.

phen

eth.

ace

t.

1-ph

enyl

etha

nol

phen

. ace

tald

.

(E)-

anet

hol

air

(NO

stim

ulus

)

(E)-

cinn

.ald

.

0

5 0

100

150

200

250

300

350

0

5 0

100

150

200

250

300

350

ab

cd

ef

gh

ij

kl

mn

o

stimulus

a

on

ml

bc

d efgh

i jk

%

mea

n no

rmal

ized

res

pons

e (+

SE

)

+

EAG response spectra to common floral compounds may allow to restrictcompounds to be field tested to a manageable number.

Foto:I. I. Sivcev B.

Having screened a number ofcompounds in field trapping tests,we established that E. hirta wasattracted to a mixture of (E)-cinnamyl alcohol and (E)-anethol.

Total caught in test:939 beetles

Agárd, April 15 - May 6 1999

cinn.OH

anethol

mea

n/tr

ap

Epicometis hirta

0

2

4

6

8

10

100 100 100 5 --

-- 5 100 100 100mg

a a b a a

Foto: Voi gt E.

Epicometis hirtano chemical

bait

0

5

10

15

20

25

30Túrkeve, Hungary, 2004

Total catch: 2127

c bc a bc b

As a flower visitor, E. hirta alsoresponded strongly to colour cues.

BLUEFLUOR.

YELLOW

TRANSP.

WHITE

YELLOW

VARb3

VARb3s

VARb3f

VARb3z

VARb3k

CSALOMON® VARb3modified funnel traps Foto: Tóth M.

Total caught in test:313 beetles

Agárd, May 21 - June 15,

1998

0

10

20

30

40

50

Epicometis hirta

trap colour

bait(cinnOH+ anethol)

blue transp. blue

yes noyes

mea

n/t

rap

a b c

Consequently, we developed a trap for E. hirta containing both the floralbait and blue colour.

VARb3k

Foto: Tóth M.

This trap is capable of catchingthousands of beetles and itsapplication decreased damages inbackyard strawberry fields.

Foto: I. Sivcev

Large-scale mass trappingapplications in industrialstrawberry fields also gavepromising results.

Foto: I. Sivcev

Foto: I. Sivcev

A close relative is Cetonia a. aurata. In recent years reports on damagesof this pest increased in Hungary. Similar news were coming also fromCroatia.

Foto: Voigt E.

methyl- eugenol

phenethyl alcohol

phenylacet-aldehyde

a0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

ab a

Total catch:

38

Telki, Hungary, 2000m

ean

catc

h (+

SE)

For attracting Cetonia a multicomponent chemical attractant wasnecessary.

Total catch:1478

0

10

20

30

40

b c #

methyl- eugenol

(E)-anethole

phenethyl alcohol

phenylacet-aldehyde

a

Telki, Hungary, 2001

ba c b

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

aab abcbcc

Total catch:10483

Telki, Hungary, 2003

traps withchemical bait

mea

n ca

tch

(+SE

)

Cetonia did not response to colours per se, but in the presence of thechemical attractant showed a slight preference for blue.

BLUEFLUOR.

YELLOW

TRANSP.

WHITE

YELLOW

VARb3

VARb3s

VARb3f

VARb3z

VARb3k

CSALOMON® VARb3modified funnel traps Foto: Tóth M.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

a ab ab ab ab

Total catch:203

Telki, Hungary, 2003traps with chemical bait

mea

n ca

tch

(+SE

)

BLUEFLUOR.

YELLOW

TRANSP.

WHITE

YELLOW

In its responses to both chemical and visual cues the related Potosiacuprea proved to be very similar to Cetonia.

VARb3

VARb3s

VARb3f

VARb3z

VARb3k

CSALOMON® VARb3modified funnel traps Foto: Tóth M.

0

2.5

5

7.5

1 0

12.5

1 5

17.5

2 0

22.5

2 5

0

2

4

6

8

1 0

1 2

1 4

1 6

1 8

2 0

2-phenyl-ethanol

+lavandulol

(E)-anethol

Total catch: 3325beetles

mean catches (+SE)

Total catch:2377beetles

Julianna major, 12 June-9 July, 2007

malesfemales

d ab bc abcd c bc d ab bc abcd c bc

In further extensive field tests a binary floralattractant was optimized for Oxythyrea funesta,a secondary cetoniin pest.

Foto: Tóth M.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

ab aaa

Total catch:327

Telki, Hungary, 2003

traps withchemical bait

mea

n ca

tch

(+SE

)

BLUEFLUOR.

YELLOW

TRANSP.

WHITE

YELLOW

O. funesta drastically differed from all previous species in which itresponded very strongly to fluorescent yellow.

VARb3

VARb3s

VARb3f

VARb3z

VARb3k

CSALOMON® VARb3modified funnel traps Foto: Tóth M.

Foto: Vuts J. Foto: Vuts J.

- with Cetonia /Potosia bait

- with O. funesta bait

VARb3k blue trap VARb3z fluorescent yellow trap

- with E. hirta bait

Consequently we ended up with the following traps developed for thedifferent cetoniin pests:

OREP OX

CE

=

=

=

... ...

.

.Bascica

Zagreb

Prkos

Kyustendil

Sofia

Roma

Acireale

Telki

2008

These traps were parallelly tested for performance and specificity inseveral European countries.

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

0

0 .2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

0

0 .5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

0

5

1 0

1 5

2 0

2 5

3 0

3 5

4 0

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

b

ab

a

b

a

a

b

a

a

c

b

a

Cetonia a. aurata

69beetles

76beetles

286beetles

5844beetles

Bascica HR Prkos HR Zagreb HR Telki H

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

0

0 .5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

Potosiacuprea

c

b

aP= 0.9999

P= 0.0111

P= 0.0111

27beetles

546beetles

Prkos HRTelki H

mea

n ca

tch

(+S

E)

mea

n ca

tch

(+S

E)

EPOXCE EPOXCE EPOXCE EPOXCE

EPOXCE EPOXCE

The target species usuallywere best attracted to theirrespective trap/baitcombinations, as seen forCetonia and Potosia here,which were captured atrelatively few sites.

Bascica Prkos Kyustendil TelkiAcireale

79 118 86 36 37 13 62 1266

Zagreb Sofia Roma

E. hirta

O. funesta

C. a. aurata

P. cuprea

T. squalida

V. hemipterus

(numbers show total caught)

Scarab speciescaught:

HR HR HR BG BG I I H

Selectivity of combination (target: E. hirta)EP

The traps in the majority of cases were fairly specific (although showedless specificity than conventional pheromone traps of moths usually do).

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

tVA

Rb3

k

ab

a

b

Acireale (I)2008

Total caught98 beetles

perso.wanadoo.es

EPOXCE

Tropinota squalida

Among further species captured, at sites in Italy, the more southerly-occurring Tropinota squalida was recorded. It responded in a similarway to both visual and chemical cues as E. hirta did, to which it ismorphologically also very close.

0

1

2

3 P = 0.496

Acireale (I)2009

Total caught133 beetles

colour of trap(with lure):

white blue

Most recent results: catches of Oxythyrea cinctella in Turkey! Thespecies is an important cetoniin pest in the Middle East.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

Cel

l Mea

n fo

r O

xyth

yrea

0nél

kül

Cet

onia

bait

fune

stab

ait

hirt

abai

t

Isparta, TR, 2008664 beetles

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Cel

l Mea

n fo

r O

xyth

yrea

with

out0

VFF VFU VTrF VTrU0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Cel

l Mea

n fo

r O

xyth

yrea

with

out0

VFF VFU VTrF VTrU

Van, TR, 2010

200 beetles

floral lurefluoresc. yellow

med

an c

atch

(+

SE

)

EPOXCE

Both chemical ANDvisual stimuli arenecessary for goodactivity.

commons.wikimedia.org

Isparta, TR, 2010

96 beetles

Rutelin scarabs damage green leaves and ripening fruit (never theflowers).

A. vitisdamage on nectarine

Foto: Voigt E.

Anomala vitis

Foto: Voigt E.

Anomalasolida

Foto: Tóth M.

A. vitis Foto: Tóth M.

Anomaladubia

Males locate the females with the help of powerful sex attractants.Chemical compositions have been defined for the three most importantEuropean Anomala species as:

A. vitisdamage on nectarine

Anomalasolida

Foto: Tóth M.

A. vitis Foto: Tóth M.

Anomaladubia

(E)-2-nonenol for Anomala vitisand A. dubia, and(R,Z)-5-(-)-(oct-1-enyl) oxa-cyclopentan-2-one (= R-buibuilactone) for A. solida.

Anomala spp. showed no colour sensitivity, so in this case the chemicalcue (sex attractant) was the only stimulus necessary for a powerful trap.

VARb3

VARb3s

VARb3f

VARb3z

VARb3k

CSALOMON® VARb3modified funnel traps Foto: Tóth M.

Total catch:

Pilis, Hungary,2005

traps with sexattractant bait

438

BLUEFLUOR.

YELLOW

TRANSP.

WHITE

YELLOW0

0.5

1

1.5

2

aa aaa

Anomalavitis

5

1 0

1 5

2 0

solida vitis

A. vitis catch (total 1372 beetles

100

A. solida catch (total 5945 beetles

5 0

A. dubia catch (total 4124 beetles

lure(s) in trap

men

a ca

tch

/ tra

p +

SE

ab

a a a a ab b

(E)-2-nonenol and R-buibuilactone do not interfer so by placing the twolures into the same trap a device catching all three Anomala spp. results.

0

Many scarabs have bright metallic colour. A century ago it wasdiscovered that scarabs with metallic colours reflect circularly polarizedlight (Michelson A.A. 1911: On metallic colouring of birds and insects.Philos. Mag. 21:554-67.)

Potosia aeruginosa (Photo J. Razov)

It was automatically supposed that scarabs possessing left-circularlypolarizing metallic shiny exocuticle in an optical environment being poorin polarized light (i.e. vegetation) could use this stimulus to find eachother in the circularly unpolarizing foliage, without the risk of beingrecognized by predators (being unsensitive to polarized light).

Photo from: Blahó M., Egri Á., Hegedüs R., Jósvai J., Tóth M., Kertész K., Biró L.P., KriskaGy., Horváth G. (2012) Physiol & Behav. 105:1067-1075.

When setting solvent-washedcarcasses of scarabs (whichlacked possible chemicalcues but yielded naturalvisual cues) into traps nobehaviroral response wasobserved.

The presence of the respective species at the test site is demonstrated bycatch in the pheromone or floral baited traps, while no catch occurred intraps with beetle carcasses.

A. vitis(total 869beetles)

C. aurata(total 415beetles)

0

1

2

3

attractant lureC. aurata carcassesP. cuprea carcasses

P. cuprea(total 47beetles)

0

1 0

2 0

3 0

0

5 0

100

0

2 5

5 0

attractant lureA. vitis carcassesA. dubia carcasses

A. dubia(total 381beetles)

Halásztelek (H) 2010

Budapest (H) 2010

a b b a b b

a b ba b b

Also, no behavioralresponse was foundin bioopticallaboratoryexperiments, neitherto the true visualstimulus of beetlesnor to mirroredimages reflectingleft- or rightpolarized light.

Diagram and photo from:Blahó M., Egri Á.,Hegedüs R., Jósvai J.,Tóth M., Kertész K., BiróL.P., Kriska Gy., HorváthG. (2012) Physiol &Behav. 105:1067-1075.

Consequently the hundred-year-oldhypothesis of Michelson wascontradicted. It appears that thereflectance of circularly polarizedlight in scarabs is a by-product of thephysical structure of the exocuticle.

Summing it all up, three types of traps combining optimal floral(chemical) and colour (visual) cues are capable of trapping the 6 majorcetoniin pests in Europe and the Middle East.As for rutelins, a single trap design baited with dual sex attractant lure issuitable to catch the 3 most important Anomala scarabs in Europe.First results suggest that the traps – beyond detection and monitoring –will be useful for directly suppressing damages through mass trapping.

Foto: Tóth M.

Special thanks are due to all colleagues participating in one or more partsof this research: B. Baric (HR), L.P. Biró (H), M. Blahó (H), F. DiFranco(I), Á. Egri (H), K. Harmincz (H), R. Hegedüs (H), G. Horváth (H), Z.Imrei (H), T. Jermy (H), M.B. Kaydan (TR), K. Kertész (H), M.G. Klein(USA), Gy. Kriska (H), W. Leal (Jap.), M. Lesznyák (H), Z. Mándoki(H), J. Míg (H), A. Mircheva (BG), B. Pénzes (H), J. Razov (HR), D.Schmera (H), K. Sipos (H), I. Sivcev (SRB), I. Sredkov (BG), M.Subchev (BG), I. Szarukán (H), Á. Szentesi (H), G. SzŒcs (H), L. SzŒllŒs(H), R. Tabilio (I), I. Tomasev (SRB), T. Toshova (BG), E. Voigt (H), J.Vuts (H), A. Yarımbatman (TR).

Foto: Tóth M.