Electroantennogram of Ceratitis capitata and field responses on Bactrocera dorsalis with Cera Trap

Background: Due to the economic impact of fruit flies, much attention has been focused onthe development of trapping systems for detection and monitoring pests and more recently toprovide successful pest control without the use of insecticides. This is due to the lately publicdemand for more benign control techniques. In this respect, the mass trapping techniqueattempts to provide successful pest control reducing the pest population in the plot by meansof traps baited with a lure with or without a low dose of insecticide. Here we performed amultidisciplinary approach to study the response of Ceratitis capitata to one hydrolyzedprotein based bait and we measured the efficacy of a mass trapping system on Bactroceradorsalis in field trials.Methods: Electrophysiological response of C. capitata and a mass trapping field trial wasperformed on B. dorsalis with a commercial mass trapping system (Cera Trap®). Theelectroantennography (EAG) were recorded from different volatile compound doses, for bothsexes as well as considering the female age fly.Results: The results corroborated that volatiles released by the protein bait are detected by theantennae of C. capitata. A higher collection period for the released volatiles from a constantbait volume does not increase the relative EAG signal. Furthermore, over a range of dosestested, EAG female response was significantly greater than male response and using a fixeddose of substrate, the maximum EAG amplitude was reached for the 4-days old female fly.Conclusions: The field trial results show that the Cera Trap® mass trapping system provides ahigh level of captures of B. dorsalis, particularly female sex, and therefore it provides a goodopportunity to the Integrated Pest Management strategies, as well as organic citrus and fruitharvest.