Responses of laboratory-strain Mexican fruit flies,Anastrepha ludens, to combinations of fermenting fruit odor and male-produced pheromone in laboratory bioassays.

The attractiveness toA. ludens adults of a combination of odor of fermented chapote fruit and pheromone was compared to attractiveness of both chapote and pheromone in laboratory bioassays. The chemical treatments were tested on 2-day-old and 10- to 12-day-old (sexually immature and mature, respectively), virgin and mated, nonstarved and starved, males and females during the early afternoon when flies were sexually inactive and the late afternoon when sexually mature flies were sexually active. The chapote-pheromone combination was equal to chapote odor alone in attractiveness to males and mated females. Pheromone partially inhibited attraction of immature females to chapote odor. Chapote odor almost completely inhibited attraction of sexually active females to pheromone. The potential for using a combination of chapote and pheromone as a trap bait is discussed.