Visual Cues Are Relevant in Behavioral Control Measures for Cosmopolites sordidus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Abstract

Trap designs for banana root borer, Cosmopolites sordidus (Germar) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), have been done essentially on the understanding that C. sordidus rely primarily on chemical cues. Our present results indicate that these borers also rely on visual cues. Previous studies have demonstrated that among the eight differently colored traps tested in the field, brown traps were the most effective compared with the performances of yellow, red, gray, blue, black, white, and green traps; mahogany-brown was more effective than other shades of brown. In the current study, efficiency of ground traps with different colors was evaluated in the laboratory for the capture of C. sordidius. Response of C. sordidus to pheromone-baited ground traps of several different colors (used either individually or as 1:1 mixtures of two different colors) were compared with the standardized mahogany-brown traps. Traps with mahogany-brown mixed with different colors had no significant effect. In contrast, a laboratory color-choice tests indicated C. sordidus preferred black traps over other color traps, with no specific preferences for different shades of black. Here again, traps with black mixed with other colors (1:1) had no influence on the catches. Therefore, any other color that mixes with mahogany-brown or black does not cause color-specific dilution of attractiveness. By exploiting these results, it may be possible to produce efficacious trapping systems that could be used in a behavioral approach to banana root borer control.