COMPARISON OF CERALURE AND TRIMEDLURE CONTROLLED-RELEASE FORMULATIONSFOR MALE MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT-FLIES IN C-AND-C TRAPS

Ceralure or trimedlure polymeric TNO panels in C&C traps were compared for attractancy by the capture of male Mediterranean fruit flies, Cer atitis capitata (Wiedemann). This study contrasts the effectiveness of ceralure with trimedlure, the former of which is an iodo-analog of tr imedlure. Field tests in Hawaii with released flies showed that the ac tive ceralure B1 isomer in a commercial mixture of ceralure isomers co nsistently caught as many male flies as active trimedlure C isomer in a commercial mixture of trimedlure isomers at one-half the molar quant ity of trimedlure C. These panels caught 6.4 and 5.2 times, for ceralu re and trimedlure, respectively, more than the standard 2 g trimedlure AgriSense aged plug over a 26-week period. The persistence of ceralur e is demonstrated by residual analyses of aged panels that revealed th e presence of 2.75 times more ceralure than trimedlure in panels after 130 days of field exposure.