Abstract: The aim of this study is to identify the semiochemicals of the female weevil, Cyrtotrachelus buqueti Guerin-Meneville, an important bamboo forest weevil pest in Southern China. The behavioral responses of male weevils to the crude cuticular extracts from virgin female weevils in a flight tunnel was analyzed, and the results showed that male weevils had positive response to the cuticular extracts as well as to virgin female weevils. The sensitive reaction of male weevil’s antenna to the crude cuticular extracts from virgin female weevils was detected by GC-EAD, and the components of the cuticular extracts that consistently elicited antennal responses were identified by GC-MS. The results indicated that male weevil’s antenna had sensitive reaction to synthetic standard chemicals of five components in the female extracts, i.e., phenol, ethyl hexanoate, 2-nonanone, nonanal, and pentadecanoic acid methyl ester. Flight tunnel and GC-EAD studies showed that the five synthetic chemicals were also bioactive to male weevils, suggesting that phenol, ethyl hexanoate, 2-nonanone, nonanal, and pentadecanoic acid methyl ester are semiochemicals of C. buqueti.

Key words: Cyrtotrachelus buqueti, semiochemical, GC-EAD, GC-MS, EAG response, behavioral response, flight tunnel, Y-tube olfactometer