TY - JOUR

T1 - Preference of pear psyllid (Cacopsylla pyri) for specific colour inspires new application in plant protection

AU - Czarnobai De Jorge, Bruna

AU - Meyhöfer, Rainer

AU - Jürgens, Andreas

AU - Gross, Jürgen

N1 - Funding Information: The authors are grateful to: The CNPq/DAAD grant which supported BCDJ's PhD Research Scholarship; Natalie Giesen, Thimo Braun, Sabine Wetzel (all JKI ‐Dossenheim, Germany) and Timo Michel (LUH) for their excellent technical assistance; Dr. Cornelia Dippel from Insect Services GmbH, Berlin, for providing the traps without charge. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

PY - 2023/12/6

Y1 - 2023/12/6

N2 - Understanding the cues used by insects to select their hosts is essential for developing sustainable control strategies, particularly for plant disease vectors. Pear psyllids (Cacopsylla pyri) are vectors of the bacterial disease pear decline caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri’. Yellow sticky traps are typically used to monitor pest insects, but they are non-specific and capture many beneficial insects, too. Against the background of improving visual traps, this research aimed to investigate the colour choice behaviour of C. pyri. Our first approach was to screen insect colour preferences by performing choice assays with different LED colour wavelengths in a small-scale choice arena under controlled conditions. Over six LEDs tested, there was a strong significant preference of C. pyri for green 1 (532 nm) followed by green 2 (549 nm). Yellow (576 nm), orange (593 nm), red 1 (619 nm) and red 2 (633 nm) were less attractive than green. Subsequently, the trapping of pear psyllids was tested in the field using newly developed traps covered with transparent-coloured PVC sheets with a similar wavelength of the preferred LEDs. Red and completely transparent traps have been used as control and combined in randomized blocks in a pear orchard. Field trials revealed that green traps ranging from 525 to 537 nm attracted significantly more pear psyllids than longer wavelength green (543 nm), red and transparent ones. The construction of specific green-coloured sticky traps seems promising for improving psyllid trapping, especially during an early infestation at low population densities. Thus, these visual traps should be considered in future and integrated into psyllid monitoring as part of integrated pest management.

AB - Understanding the cues used by insects to select their hosts is essential for developing sustainable control strategies, particularly for plant disease vectors. Pear psyllids (Cacopsylla pyri) are vectors of the bacterial disease pear decline caused by ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma pyri’. Yellow sticky traps are typically used to monitor pest insects, but they are non-specific and capture many beneficial insects, too. Against the background of improving visual traps, this research aimed to investigate the colour choice behaviour of C. pyri. Our first approach was to screen insect colour preferences by performing choice assays with different LED colour wavelengths in a small-scale choice arena under controlled conditions. Over six LEDs tested, there was a strong significant preference of C. pyri for green 1 (532 nm) followed by green 2 (549 nm). Yellow (576 nm), orange (593 nm), red 1 (619 nm) and red 2 (633 nm) were less attractive than green. Subsequently, the trapping of pear psyllids was tested in the field using newly developed traps covered with transparent-coloured PVC sheets with a similar wavelength of the preferred LEDs. Red and completely transparent traps have been used as control and combined in randomized blocks in a pear orchard. Field trials revealed that green traps ranging from 525 to 537 nm attracted significantly more pear psyllids than longer wavelength green (543 nm), red and transparent ones. The construction of specific green-coloured sticky traps seems promising for improving psyllid trapping, especially during an early infestation at low population densities. Thus, these visual traps should be considered in future and integrated into psyllid monitoring as part of integrated pest management.

KW - IPM

KW - colour sticky traps

KW - colour vision

KW - monitoring

KW - pear decline

KW - psyllids

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173852401&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/jen.13194

DO - 10.1111/jen.13194

M3 - Article

VL - 147

SP - 976

EP - 989

JO - Journal of applied entomology

JF - Journal of applied entomology

SN - 0044-2240

IS - 10

ER -