Mating disruption using synthetic sex pheromones is an effective pest-control method to prevent the evolution of insecticide resistance. Although the sex pheromone of the yellow peach moth Conogethes punctiferalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae) has already been identified and artificially synthesized, mating disruption in the field has been less successful than expected. Such ineffectiveness may be caused by genetic variation in the attractiveness of the sex pheromone across moth populations. To evaluate this possibility, we evaluated the genetic population structure of this species across 10 populations in Japan. We found that two clades were present at the mtDNA COI region, each clade was sympatrically distributed, and no genetic structure was detected among the populations. In addition, the frequencies of the two clades did not differ between the samples in pheromone traps using two types of blend and those hand collected from infested fruit. Our mating experiment revealed random mating between the two clades. Our results strongly suggest that the genetic variation in the attractiveness of the sex pheromone is minimal and symmetrical gene flow likely occurs between the clades in the field.

中文翻译：

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黄桃蛾 Conogethes punctiferalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) 的分子系统发育：日本两个遗传谱系的分布

使用合成性信息素破坏交配是一种有效的害虫防治方法，可以防止杀虫剂抗性的演变。虽然黄桃蛾 Conogethes punctiferalis (Guenée)（鳞翅目，Crambidae）的性信息素已经被鉴定并人工合成，但该领域的交配破坏并没有预期的那么成功。这种无效可能是由性信息素在蛾类种群中的吸引力的遗传变异引起的。为了评估这种可能性，我们评估了该物种在日本 10 个种群中的遗传种群结构。我们发现 mtDNA COI 区域存在两个进化枝，每个进化枝同域分布，在种群中没有检测到遗传结构。此外，两种进化枝的频率在使用两种类型混合物的信息素陷阱样本和从受感染水果中手工收集的样本之间没有差异。我们的交配实验揭示了两个进化枝之间的随机交配。我们的结果强烈表明，性信息素吸引力的遗传变异很小，并且该领域的进化枝之间可能发生对称的基因流动。