Sex-biased trap capture and odor-stimulated upwind flight in the field by Rhagoletis mendax (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The bluebeny maggot, Rhagoletis mendax Curran, is a primary insect pest of low bush blueberries, Vaccinium angustifolium Ait. (Ericaceae), in eastern Canada. Eggs are laid in ripening berries and mature larvae emerge from the berries to pupate in the soil. Adult flies can be controlled with insecticides (Wood et al. 1983) and (or) cultural control by bum or flail-mow pruning of bushes. Pruned plants do not bear fruit the season after pruning, and this rotation of fruit and nonfruit years is believed to reduce fly populations by limiting food availability (Lathrop 1952). Adult flies can be monitored by capture on yellow-panel sticky traps or red-sphere traps (Prokopy and Coli 1978; Wood et al. 1983; Neilson et al. 1984). In this study, we focused on the sex ratio of R. mendax flies captured on baited and unbaited yellow-panel sticky traps (Pheroco® AM traps) and on the orientation behavior of flies toward wind-vane traps.