Vegetal synergists for trapping the adult of Scyphophorus acupunctatus Gyllenhal, in pheromone baited traps, in Agave angustifolia Haw., in Morelos, Mexico

Abstract

The agave weevil Scyphophorus acupunctatus Gyllenhal (Coleoptera: Dryophthoridae) is the main insect pest of wild and cultivated agaves in Mexico and in other countries. The management of this pest is complicated because to its cryptic habits. Recently, it has been developed a trapping system based with synthetic pheromone and food bait for monitoring this insect. However, an important part of the any trapping system is to know if any can synergize the response of the insect to the synthetic pheromone. In this study, we evaluated several vegetal tissue and ripped fruits for determining its potential as synergist for the synthetic pheromone for trapping the agave weevil in “agave espadin mezcal”, in Tlaltizapan, Morelos state. The vegetal evaluated were: “maguey espadin criollo” tissue, “maguey espadin oaxaqueno” tissue, “maguey papalote” tissue, sugarcane tissue,\xa0 ripped pineapple fruit, ripped banana fruit, ripped guava fruit, ripped apple fruit, and tuberose flower. Our results showed that the best synergists were agave tissue, pineapple, banana submerged in soapy water.