Resumen de Comunicación química intraespecífica de Coroebus spp. (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) y Dociostaurus maroccanus (Orthoptera: Acrididae), dos insectos plaga de la Península Ibérica

Benjamin Fürstenau

• The Chemical Ecology of four insect pests was investigated in this work. Eavesdropping of their intraspecific communication by means of pheromones or other volatile organic compounds provide important details that could be used to control them in a environmentally-friendly way. With the aim to find possible pheromones of three pest species of the Iberian Peninsula, analytical studies of the emitted volatiles were accomplished. In behavioral and electrophysiological bioassays the activity of the identified compounds was determined, and additionally, field trapping experiments were initiated. The two jewel beetles, Coreobus undatus and C. florentinus (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), represent serious threats to the cork oak, Quercus suber, causing severe damage to the cork, exclusively produced by this endemic tree. Further pest species investigated include the Moroccan locust, Dociostaurus maroccanus, (Orthoptera: Acrididae). This polyphagous pest of crops and pastures causes high economic damage in many countries of the Mediterranean Basin. In addition, this work filled a knowledge gap of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae), one of the most destructive crop pests in Africa and Asia, concerning the maturation response of gregarious nymphs to the presence of pheromone producing conspecific mature adults. Altogether, this study provides the basis for following research and may be helpful to curtail the reproduction and spread of these pests.