Wing fanning as a measure of pheromone response in the male pink bollworm,Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae).

A still-air, wing fanning bioassay measured male pheromone response in the pink bollworm moth,Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders). As pheromone concentration was increased, the duration of wing fanning increased while its latency decreased. Response duration was longest for the natural pheromone blend [44∶:56 (Z,E)- and (Z,Z)-7,11-hexadecadienyl acetates], although responses to 38% and 50%Z,E blends were not significantly briefer. Preexposure to pheromone had no effect on wing fanning in males retested after 24 hr. Wing fanning was highly correlated with upwind flight and other responses observed in a wind tunnel. Wing fanning duration provides a continuous measure of pheromone response and allows a large number of males to be tested in a short time; these two characteristics of the wingfanning assay are helpful for genetic analyses of male response.