Attraction responses of the American cockroach to synthetic periplanone-B.

Synthetic periplanone-B has been shown not only to be a sex excitant to malePeriplaneta americana by bioassay in the laboratory but also an attractant pheromone by field tests in a rice storage house in Taipei. During both summer and winter months, it attracted signincantly more adult males into the traps used in the experiments than adult females. There is a statistically significant increase in the sex ratio (male-female) of the trapped adults with increase in periplanone-B used. An attempt has been made to explain the trapping of females and nymphs in addition to males by the chemicals used in our tests.