The dried bean beetle, Acanthoscelides obtectus, is an economically important, worldwide pest of legume crops including dry beans, Phaseolus vulgaris. Assessment of A. obtectus infestation levels in pre-harvest field crops and post-harvest granaries is difficult to achieve because there is no effective monitoring tool for early detection so that interventions can be deployed as needed. Because A. obtectus is a generic pollen and nectar feeder, we adopted an electrophysiological (EAG) screening approach, using the antennae of female A. obtectus to identify physiologically active, volatile phytochemicals, which could then be investigated for their attractiveness to A. obtectus in laboratory behavioral assays and preliminary field tests. Of the 27 compounds tested in EAG screening, 5 compounds, i.e., methyl anthranilate, methyl eugenol, benzyl alcohol, (RS)-lavandulol, and 2-phenylethanol, elicited stronger EAG responses than the standard (1-phenylethanol). In 4-arm olfactometer bioassays, female A. obtectus preferred the olfactometer arm containing the odor of either methyl anthranilate or benzyl alcohol compared to the solvent control. In preliminary field tests using these 2 compounds as a binary mixture, at least 5 times as many beetles were caught on baited traps compared to non-baited traps. The field data also suggested that benzyl alcohol was primarily responsible for the field activity of the blend. We hypothesize that the attraction of A. obtectus to the combined benzyl alcohol/methyl anthranilate and the single benzyl alcohol baits is connected to the species` nectar- and pollen-feeding behaviour and not to its intraspecific communication. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that A. obtectus behavior in the field can be modified by the deployment of plant-derived semiochemicals.

干豆甲虫Acanthoscelides obtectus是一种具有重要经济意义的全球性豆类作物害虫，包括干豆、菜豆。很难对收获前大田作物和收获后粮仓中的A. obtectus侵染水平进行评估，因为没有用于早期检测的有效监测工具，因此可以根据需要部署干预措施。由于A. obtectus是一种通用的花粉和花蜜饲养者，我们采用了电生理 (EAG) 筛选方法，使用雌性A. obtectus的触角来识别具有生理活性的挥发性植物化学物质，然后可以研究它们对A. obtectus的吸引力在实验室行为分析和初步现场测试中。在 EAG 筛选中测试的 27 种化合物中，有 5 种化合物，即邻氨基苯甲酸甲酯、甲基丁香酚、苯甲醇、( RS )-薰衣草醇和 2-苯基乙醇，比标准品（1-苯基乙醇）引起更强的 EAG 反应。在 4 臂嗅觉计生物测定中，与溶剂对照相比，雌性A. obtectus更喜欢含有邻氨基苯甲酸甲酯或苯甲醇气味的嗅觉计臂。在使用这两种化合物作为二元混合物的初步现场测试中，与非诱饵诱捕器相比，诱捕诱捕器捕获的甲虫数量至少是其 5 倍。现场数据还表明，苯甲醇对混合物的现场活动负主要责任。我们假设的吸引力A.对组合的苯甲醇/邻氨基苯甲酸甲酯和单一苯甲醇诱饵的 obtectus 与物种的花蜜和花粉喂养行为有关，而不是与其种内交流有关。据我们所知，这是第一个证据表明A. obtectus在田间的行为可以通过部署植物来源的化学信息素来改变。