The sex pheromone components for mating disruption of the rice leaf bug, Trigonotylus caelestialium (Heteroptera: Miridae)

The sex pheromone components for mating disruption of the rice leaf bug Trigonotylus caelestialium were examined in both the laboratory and the field. A rearing cage test in the laboratory showed that the copulation rate of T. caelestialium adults in cages treated with a dispenser loaded with the synthetic sex pheromone, a mixture of n-hexyl n-hexanoate, (E)-2-hexenyl n-hexanoate, and n-octyl n-butyrate (100: 40: 3), was lower than that of bugs in untreated cages, and that populations of the next generation were also reduced. In small-scale field tests (9 dispensers loaded with 50 mg of the sex pheromone placed at 5 m intervals in a 10 m X 10m square area), the numbers of males captured by traps baited with a lure containing the three components of the sex pheromone were reduced to some degree by treatment with either n-hexyl n-hexanoate or (E)-2-hexenyl n-hexanoate alone, or a 100: 40 mixture of these two components. Furthermore, male capture by traps baited with the lure were mostly reduced by treatment of the 3-component sex pheromone, and also those baited with 3 virgin females. In large-scale field tests (200 dispensers each containing 300 mg of the 3-component sex pheromone in an area of 10,000 m(2)), the population densities of T. caelestialium and the numbers of males captured by traps in the treated fields were lower than those in the untreated fields.