Sex attractants for moths of Vietnam: field attraction by synthetic lures baited with known lepidopteran pheromones.

Screening tests of synthetic lepidopteran sex pheromones were carried out at orchards in the Mekong Delta over an approximately two-year period starting from December 1998. Monoenyl acetates with a C10-C14 chain attracted six species distributed mainly in Southeast Asia: Adoxophyes privatana, Archips atrolucens, and Meridemisfurtiva in the Tortricidae family, and Argyrogramma signata. Spodoptera pectinicornis, and Zonoplusia ochreata in the Noctuidae family. These were in addition to three other noctuid species that had been attracted during previous field examinations within a temperate zone. Furthermore, male moths of three species belonging to the Cosmopterigidae, Gelechiidae, or Batrachedridae family were also caught by traps baited with acetates. Trienes with a C18-C21 chain and their monoepoxides. which are stereotypes of pheromones secreted by females in the Geometridae family, failed to attract any geometrid male, but attracted three Noctuidae species and four Arctiidae species.