Crucifers, pests

Figure 4 Oviposition stimulants for crucifer pests, Plutella xylostella (upper) and Hellula undalis (lower).

Sparks, T. C. In The Management of Diamondback Moth and Other Crucifer Pests Proceedings of the 4 International Workshop, Melbourne, Australia, N. M. Endersby and P. M. Ridland (Eds.), The Regional Institute Ltd. Gosford, NSM, Australia. 2004, pp. 37-44. 

Many Insects have become specialists on crucifers and a few related plant families. These Include flea beetles, leaf beetles, cabbage root fly, aphids, cabbage butterflies and the dlamondback moth. At the same time, several polyphagous Insects such as the cabbage looper, armyworms and aphids are major pests of crucifers. Comparative studies on these specialists and generalists have provided valuable Information on host recognition and possible resistance mechanisms. 

It has been discovered that the crucifer flea beetle, Phyllotreta cruciferae Goeze, a significant pest of oilseed Brassica and other cruciferous crops in North America and Europe, uses a hydrocarbon pheromone. The first published evidence for a pheromone in P. cruciferae was that canola plants infested by unsexed adults were more attractive to both males and females than damaged plants only, in both laboratory and field bioassays (Peng and Weiss, 1992). Subsequently, Peng et al. (1999) determined with field bioassays that the males were the attractive sex, fitting the pattern of a male-produced aggregation pheromone. 

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