How much is a pheromone worth?

Pheromone-baited traps have been widely used in integrated pest management programs, but their economic value for growers has never been reported.  We analyzed the economic benefits of long-term use of traps baited with the citrus fruit borer Gymnandrosoma aurantianum sex pheromone in Central-Southern Brazil. Our analysis show that from 2001 to 2013 citrus growers avoided accumulated pest losses of 132.7 million to 1.32 billion USD in gross revenues, considering potential crop losses in the range of 5 to 50%. The area analyzed, 56,600 to 79,100 hectares of citrus (20.4 to 29.4 million trees), corresponds to 9.7 to 13.5% of the total area planted with citrus in the state of São Paulo. The data show a benefit-to-cost ratio of US$2,655 to US$ 26,548 per dollar spent on research with estimated yield loss prevented in the range of 5-50%, respectively. This study demonstrates that, in addition to the priceless benefits for the environment, sex pheromones are invaluable tools for growers as their use for monitoring populations allows rational and reduced use of insecticides, a win-win situation

Immature stages of Spodoptera albula (walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae): developmental parameters and host plants.

This study aimed to detail the temporal and morphological parameters of the immature stages of Spodoptera albula (Walker 1857) under controlled conditions (25 ± 1°C, 70 ± 10% RH and 14 hour photophase) and to gather information about their larval host plants. For this purpose, a new rearing method and artificial diet was employed and validated. The viability of the egg, larval, pupal and pre-pupal stages was 94.54, 97.33, 93.84 and 92.34%, respectively. The average duration of the egg, larval, pupal and pre-pupal stages was 4.14, 16.37, 1.69, and 9.34 days, respectively. During the larval stage, 80.85% of females and 93.99% of males passed through six and remaining through seven instars, with significant larval protandry. The larvae that developed through six and seven instars exhibited a mean growth rate of 1.58 and 1.48, respectively. Fifty five host plant species belonging to 29 families are listed. The female pupae were significantly larger, exhibiting protogyny. Both the rearing methods as well as the larval diet proved adequate, providing more detailled observations of the biological cycle, especially the larval stage, and resulting in an overall survival of almost 80%