Influence of Pheromone Trap Color and Placement on Catch of Male Potato Tuber Moth, Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller, 1873)

• Main Author: Seyed Mehdi Hashemi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Union of Scientists in Bulgaria 2015-06-01
• Series: Ecologia Balkanica
• Subjects: Monitoring system; pheromone baited traps; Potato Tuber Moth
• Online Access: http://web.uni-plovdiv.bg/mollov/EB/2015_vol7_iss1/045_050_eb.15110.pdf

Potato Tuber Moth (PTM), Phthorimaea operculella (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is one of the damaging pests of potatoes in both field crops and storage worldwide. Larvae develop in the foliage and tubers of potatoes and cause direct losses of product. Mass trapping application of synthetic pheromone has been found to be effective to control P. operculella; however, several factors have to be optimized for improving its efficiency. This experiment was carried out during the 2012 season, Ardabil province, Iran to evaluate the effectiveness of pheromone trap to capture males for future development of a mass trapping technique, and a subsequent decrease in insect reproduction. Particularly, in this experiment the influence of color (yellow, red and green), and height (ground level, 0.3 and 0.6 m) of water-pan trap on males captures was tested. The results showed that green traps captured significantly (P < 0.05) more males than red and yellow traps. Water-pan traps placed at 0.6 above plant canopy captured significantly (P < 0.05) the highest number of the moths in comparison to traps placed at ground level and 0.3 m.