Medfly attractancy pattern

Medfly Attractancy Pattern from the Peak Number Plot... 

ITsecond point suggested by the Table is the fact that where there are many favorable frequencies in the pattern, a randomly selected candidate is likely to have at least one that will approximately match one element of the pattern. This is no doubt the reason why 25.3% of the 2577 compounds tested by the U.S.D.A. attracted the medfly which has a seven element pattern. This contrasts with the fact that of 2618 compounds tested as attractants for the Mexican fruit fly, only 7.8% were effective (9). For this insect the Peak Number Plot shows only three favorable frequencies which makes it less probable that any given chemical will attract. 

Figure 2. Peak number plots for the Mediterranean fruit fly, or medfly, the Oriental fruit fly, and the melon fly. There is some overlap in the patterns, and many compounds with frequencies corresponding to the overlaps will attract two, or in some cases, all three species of insect.

It seems clear that an insect like the medfly which is attracted to about 25% of a large and diverse selection of chemicals 9), must be able to respond to a relatively small sub-pattern drawn from the total pattern of medfly-favorable frequencies. The actual size of the minimum sub-pattern is suggested by the data summarized in Table II. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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