Field Catches of Oxythyrea Cinctella Using Visual and Olfactory Cues

Abstract

Diurnal flower-visiting scarabs (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Cetoniinae) use visual and olfactory stimuli when locating possible feeding sites. In field trapping experiments in Turkey, testing different colours and floral volatile compounds, a combination of fluorescent yellow colour and a blend of 2-phenylethanol and (+/-)-lavandulol leads to the highest number of Oxythyrea cinctella (Schaum) being caught. Trap catches of O. cinctella with respect to the individually presented visual or olfactory cues are significantly lower than to a combination of the two. The closely-related O. funesta, a sibling species in the Oxythyrea genus, is also known to be caught by the same colour-volatile combination. When applied together in a high capture-capacity trap, the fluorescent yellow colour and the binary floral odour blend may provide a suitable means of monitoring population changes of O. cinctella, which indicates their potential use in agriculture.