Ecology and reproductive behaviour of stored-product pest insects.

   The stored-product pest insect’s environment differ from the outdoor environment in that there is rarely any wind and the day and night cycles may vary quite a lot within and between different storage facilities, industries and periods of time. Adaptations toward indoor habitats have probably evolved toward less strict diurnal rhythms. Most previous studies have focused on optimizing the trapping of the stored-product pests, in order to find a control that minimizes the use of pesticides. However, understanding the biology of the species is of utmost interest, not only to learn to control the pests without using pesticides, but also for the general knowledge of how these pest insects have adapted to, and evolved in, these special habitats.

This project is concentrating on two closely related moth species and three species of flour beetles:

Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella) Mediterranean flour moth (Ephestia kuehniella) Confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum) Rust-red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) Dark flour beetle (Tribolium destructor)
	Photo on Plodia interpunctella

The mating and the courtship in these insects always involve a pheromone or a sequence of pheromone communication. The idea of using pheromones as a method for pest control is that the communication system of the insects are interrupted or in some other way deceives the insect and thus prevent the males and female of mating. The identification of the pheromones involved in the mating is old and do not efficiently explain the species specificity of the sympatric species.

Objectives:

• Identification of the pheromones involved in mate finding of the male P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella .
• Mating ability and pheromone production in P. interpunctella.
• Use the more refined pheromones for trapping tests and mating disruption in mills.
• Identification of the aggregation pheromones used by the different flour beetles.
• What is the behaviour sequence of the beetles during mating and what pheromone communication system are they using?

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