Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu (India).
*A part of approved M.Sc (Ag.) thesis submitted by Samuel Praveen Kumar to the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu (India).
Rubber septa coated with different concentrations of various synthetic sex pheromone components of Leucinodes orbonalis Guen., viz, (E)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (500, 400,300 pg), (E)-11-hexadecenyl -1 -ol (500, 400, 300 pg) and a blend of both (100:100 and 100:75 pg) were evaluated by using water trough traps for a period of eight standard weeks. Among all the components, only component (E) -11 -hexadecenyl acetate baited traps recorded moth catches at all the three concentrations and these moth catches were negatively correlated with relative humidity and positively correlated with per cent fruit infestation recorded two weeks prior to standard week. The sex pheromone (E)-11-hexadecenyl acetate at 300–400 μg concentrations could serve to monitor the populations of L. orbonalis in brinjal fields.
