Minor and intermediate components enhance attraction of female Mediterranean fruit flies to natural male odor pheromone and its synthetic major components

The attraction of virgin female medflies to either the natural pheromonal o dor of calling males or its synthetic major components was enhanced by both intermediate and minor pheromonal components in multiple choice discrimina tion tests. The modification of the standard Gow rotating-trap-array cage o lfactometer to allow a single source of natural pheromonal odor to be deliv ered equally and simultaneously to a number of traps greatly increased trap ping efficacy (64% capture rate) and ability to resolve odor preference dis crimination by female flies. In olfactometer cage bioassays, responding fem ale medflies expressed preferences in attraction to male odor augmented wit h either synthetic intermediate or minor components over male odor alone. I n dual-choice flight-tunnel bioassays, the minor blend enhanced the attract iveness of both the natural male odor and its synthetic major components. M oreover, the minor blend, when presented together with the synthetic major components, comprised an artificial pheromonal lure competitive for the fir st time with the natural male odor in attraction of virgin female medflies.