Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Baits – attractants – or lures
Reexamination Certificate
1992-05-06
2003-09-02
Travers, Russell (Department: 1617)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Baits, attractants, or lures
Reexamination Certificate
active
06613317
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to lures for attracting and controlling Diabrotica species. In particular, the invention relates to lures comprising one or more compounds found in the volatile fraction of Cucurbita blossoms, or analogs thereof, alone or in combination with other lures, insecticides, and/or compulsive feeding stimulants.
The chrysomelid genera Diabrotica and Acalymma contain numerous pest species, including the western corn rootworm (WCR),
Diabrotica virgifera virgifera
LeConte; the southern corn rootworm (SCR) or, the spotted cucumber beetle,
D. undecimpunctata howardi [D. duodecimpunctate
Fab.]; the northern corn rootworm (NCR),
D. barberi
Smith and Lawerence; and the striped cucumber beetle (SCB),
Acalymma vittatum
(Fabr.).
The western, norther, and southern corn rootworms are the most expensive insect pests of North America and annually cost U.S. farmers approximately one billion dollars in costs associated with lost crop yield and with preventative treatments with soil insecticides. The era of relatively inexpensive crop protection against these pests has ended because of generalized rootworm resistance to organochlorine insecticides and the withdrawal by the U.S. EPA of registrations for these insecticides due to widespread environmental contamination. The newer organophosphorous and carbamate insecticides are more expensive and subject to accelerated microbial degradation in soils and a rapid loss of activity. Furthermore, due to the persistence of many of these soil insecticides, groundwater and surface run-off pollution is of much concern to state and federal agencies. Because of the uncertain performance and safety of the major products currently used for larval rootworm control, such as carbofuran (Furadan™), isofenphos (Amaze™), phorate (Thimet™), terbufos (Counter™), a technological void exists for controlling these pests. Even standard cultural methods of pest management such as crop rotations of corn-soybean-corn and corn are endangered as evidence exists that the northern corn rootworm can undergo an extended diapause for two seasons. Hence, the benefits of yearly crop rotation are threatened.
Present soil insecticide technology for corn rootworm control is rapidly becoming unworkable. The use of volatile attractants, singularly and in combinations with other control methods, can become the basis for a new integrated pest management IPM) technology for rootworm control that is economically favorable for the farmer and certainly much less environmentally objectionable. In this regard, Diabrotica and Acalymma are known to show a close association with host plants of the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly with the genus Cucurbita. Adult beetles are most commonly found in the blossoms of Cucurbita species where they feed on pollen (in staminate flowers) and on nectar. In most instances, adult beetles showed a preference for the blossoms of
C. maxima
Duchesne cultivars over those of
C. pepo
L. and
C. moschata
Poir.
The blossom characteristics, i.e., color, size, shape, and/or fragrance, responsible for this preference are not fully understood, although Diabrotica attraction to certain compounds, termed semiochemicals, has been reported. By way of background, semiochemicals are plant-produced compounds which act by diffusion through air to produce behaviorial responses in associated insect species. Kairomones are those semiochemicals which act to benefit the receiving species; allomones are those which benefit the sending species; and synomones, e.g., floral volatiles involved in pollination, benefit both the emitting plant, through pollination, and the perceiving insect by rewards of nectar and pollen or through more intangible ecological rewards of aggregation or lek formations which lead to mating.
One of the earlier reports relating to Diabrotica attraction to compounds appeared in Morgan, et al.,
J. Econ. Entomol
., 21:913 (1928). This collection of preliminary results on the chemotropic response of certain insects included the observation that the spotted cucumber beetle,
D. undecimpunctata howardi
(as
D. duodecimpuntata
Fab.), was attracted to cinnamaldehyde and cinnamyl alcohol. These results were obtained using white granite-ware pans of about 2-quart capacity set in rows on stakes 2 feet high, and filled with 1 quart of water to which was added 1 cc. of the chemical to be tested. The areas in which experiments were conducted included a field white with the blossoms of the field daisy (
Erigeron annuus
) oatfields, margins of woods, hedge rose, a cane brake, a slaughter-house lot; and a livery-stable yard. There is no indication in the reference as to the degree to which, or the conditions under which, cinnamic aldehyde and cinnamic alcohol acted as attractants. Shapp, et al.,
J. Econ. Entomol
., 22:98 (1929) disclosed a preliminary report indicating that the spotted cucumber beetle was attracted by oil of thyme (white) and benzyl alcohol. However, in tests by Lampman, et al,
J. Chem. Ecol
., 13:959 (1987) benzyl alcohol was shown to have negligible attractant value.
Ladd, et al.,
J. Econ. Entomol
., 76:1049 (1983), studying a mixture of phenethyl proprionate, eugenol, geraniol, a food-type lure for Japanese beetles, reported that eugenol was attractive to adults of
D. barberi
Smith & Lawrence (NCR), but not attractive to
D. virgifera virgifera
LeConte (WCR). Ladd, T. L.,
J. Econ. Entomol
., 77:339 (1984) tested nine compounds closely related to eugenol for attractancy to NCR including four groups: eugenol and its close relatives with isomeric or saturated hydrocarbon side chains; eugenol acetate and its isomer; anethole and its analogs with isomeric or saturated side chains; and a miscellaneous group consisting or methyleugenol and 2-allyl-6-methoxyphenol (orthoeugenol). The author reported two new attractants for NCR, isoeugenol and 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol and concluded that while neither the position of the double bond in the side chain nor the degree of saturation appeared critical in attracting NCR the presence of the methoxy and hydroxyl groups at their respective positions (adjacent), particularly the latter, seemed to be important. Yaro, et al.,
Environ. Entomol
., 16:126 (1987) reported that eugenol and 2-methoxy-4-propyl phenol were highly attractive to
D. cristata
Harris ( a non-pest species) and
D. barberi
Smith & Lawrence, whereas isoeugenol acetate was not attractive. None of the compounds was highly attractive to
D. virgifera vigifera
LeConte. Ladd, et al.,
J. Econ. Entomol
., 77:652 (1984) also conducted tests to study the influence of color and height of eugenol-baited sticky traps and reported that the traps were most effective when painted yellow and placed 0 to 0.25 m above ground.
Another recent report of investigations concerning a chemical basis for Diabrotica orientation to the blossoms or foilage of Cucurbita species was in Andersen, et al.,
J. Chem. Ecol
., 12:687 (1986). The authors screened
C. maxima
“Blue Hubbard” blossom volatiles for electroantennogram (EAG) activity, a laboratory test for insect electrophysiological response to volatile compounds, and found two fractions had significant activity for the southern corn rootworm. The first peak consisted of indole and the second, smaller peak, was not characterized. Indole was then field tested for insect responsiveness and found to be a potent attractant of the western corn rootworm and of the striped cucumber beetle. However, the southern corn rootworm was not attracted at any dosage level despite the strong EAG response.
Anderson, et al.,
J. Chem. Ecol
., 13:681 (1987) subsequently characterized the blossom constituents of attractive Cucurbita floral volatiles from a number of cultivars representing
C. moschata, C. pepo
, and
C. maxima
, and examined other factors, including nutritional and secondary chemical characteristics, that might influence beetle field distribution in blossoms. They found paradimethoxybenzene to be a major constituent of headspace samples from cultiv
Lampman Richard L.
Metcalf Robert L.
Marshall Gerstein & Borun
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Travers Russell
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