MONOTERPENES RELEASED BY Monalonion bondari (MIRIDAE) NYMPHS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR.

Authors

  • Eliaber Barros Santos Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
  • Iago Oliveira Carvalho Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
  • Danilo Batista Pereira Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
  • Ariane Morgana Leal Soares Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz
  • Carla Fernanda Fávaro Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz

Keywords:

PHEROMONE, INSECT PEST, COCOA, SEMIOCHEMICALS

Abstract

The Monalonion spp. (Miridae) is an important genus for cocoa crops in some countries, and M. bondari is the most prominent species in Bahia, Brazil. In the feeding process, the insects release toxins that cause death of the branches and injuries on the fruits, known as pustules, making production impossible decline. Thus, the objective of this work was to identify the compounds produced and released by the M. bondari nymphs, bringing the first information about the defensive behavior of the species. Nymphs were collected from cocoa fruits in the municipality of Mutuípe, Bahia. In LaCoBSe (UESC) fourth and fifth instar nymphs were stressed by successive touch using sterile cotton tweezers attached to the tip. The cotton, impregnated with the excreted substance, was immersed in 150 μL of hexane. Initially, GC-MS equipped with a RTX-5 capillary column was used to identify the present compounds. Next, GC-FID equipped with a β-DEX ™ 325 chiral column was used to identify the isomerism of chiral compounds. The nymphs, when threatened, were found to release from the rectum a sticky, yellowish substance with a marked odor. When walking, they invert the abdomen downwards and dispense the substance on the surfaces. The results revealed that the substance is composed by a mixture of monoterpenes. We identified (-)-sabinene, majority in the sample, (-)-α-pinene, mircene, (-)-limonene, ocimene and terpinolene. Experiments using a dual-choice olfactometer are underway to evaluate the behavior of M. bondari nymphs and adults against the identified synthetic compounds.

Published

2019-10-19

How to Cite

Santos, E. B., Carvalho, I. O., Pereira, D. B., Soares, A. M. L., & Fávaro, C. F. (2019). MONOTERPENES RELEASED BY Monalonion bondari (MIRIDAE) NYMPHS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR. Caderno Verde De Agroecologia E Desenvolvimento Sustentável, 9(5), b–40. Retrieved from https://gvaa.com.br/revista/index.php/CVADS/article/view/7174

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