Abstract:

The attractive activities of the volatiles from frass of both sexes of Apriona germari feeding on different plants (Morus alba, Cudrania tricuspidata and Broussonetia papyrifera) towards the parasitoid Aprostocetus prolixus was compared by olfactory bioassays, and the components of those volatiles were analyzed by TCT-GC-MS, aiming at deeply understanding of the role of volatiles from frass of A. germari in host location of A. prolixus. The results indicated that the volatiles from frass of female or male A. germari feeding on the different host plants attracted the parasitoid significantly. But the attractive activities towards the parasitoid were not different significantly between different frass, suggesting that the host plant species or the sex of A. germari does not affect the attractiveness of frass to A. prolixus. The volatiles from A. germari frass included mainly alkynes, ketones, aldehydes, esters and terpenes. The components of the frass volatiles of A. germari feeding on C. tricuspidata were the same as on B. papyrifera. However, more volatile components were found in frass of A. germari feeding on M. alba than feeding on the other two species of plants. The components of frass volatiles of both sexes of A. germari feeding on the same species of host plant were roughly the same. The results suggest that the species difference of host plants affects the volatile components of A. germari frass significantly, while the sexuality of A. germari does not.

Key words: Apripona germari, host plants, Aprostocetus prolixus, frass volatiles, attractive activity, component analysis