Courtship Disruption of Whiteflies（Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae）and Leafminers（Diptera: Agromyzidae）with an Insect-behavior Regulator Chemical, Acetylated Glyceride

Abstract

Acetylated glyceride(AG)is a unique pesticide composed of food additives that regulate insect behaviors. Our previous findings showed a reduction in male courtship songs and courting pairs on AG-treated host leaves, as well as repellence of adult MEAM1(Middle East Asia Minor 1)of Bemisia tabaci(Gennadius)(Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). Here, we investigated the efficacy of AG on the mutual courtship behaviors of MEDQ1(Mediterranean Q1)B. tabaci, Trialeurodes vaporariorum(Westwood)(Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), and Liriomyza sativae (Blanchard) (Diptera: Agromyzidae). We acoustically analyzed the courtship and response songs of test pairs on leaves after exchanging AG-treated leaves with non-treated leaves. Sexual communication and the rate of mating success for MEDQ1 both decreased significantly on treated leaves. A significant reduction in male courtship songs with AG application was also observed in T. vaporariorum. For L. sativae, courtship songs were performed in 88.2% of the test pairs on non-treated leaves, with a mating success rate of 58.8%; in contrast, only 29.6% of the test pairs on the treated leaves produced courtship songs, with a mating success rate of 7.4%. These results suggest that AG negatively influenced the continuity of mutual courtship behavior, which consists of male songs and female response songs.