Natural Oil Lure Outperforms Trimedlure in Capturing Males of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly, Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Nine sesquiterpenes structurally related to the potent male Mediterranean fruit fly lure (+)-α-copaene were tested in a series of field bioassays to determine their male medfly attractiveness relative to one another and to (+)-α-copaene itself. This study was carried out to determine the relative importance of the various substructure components of the (+)-α-copaene molecule in eliciting an attractive response in the male fly. Tests indicated that any deviation from the three-dimensional structure of (+)-α-copaene leads to major losses in male fly attractancy. The tested analogs fell into two groups, based on their levels of attraction: (+)-α-ylangene, (+)-β-copaene, (+)-β-ylangene, and (-)-α-copaene were found to be somewhat attractive, although much less so than (+)-α-copaene, while (+)-cyclosativene, (+)-cyclocopacamphene, (+)-longicyclene, (+)-longipinene, and (-)-trans-α-bergamotene were not attractive.