Live Larvae Deter Oviposition by .

The worldwide invasive insect pest, Matsumura (spotted-wing ), lays eggs in soft and stone fruit before harvest. Hatched larvae cause fruit collapse and significant economic losses. Current control methods rely primarily on foliar insecticide applications, which are not sustainable long-term solutions due to regulatory restrictions and the risk of insecticide resistance developing. We showed before that were deterred from laying eggs on artificial media previously visited by its sister species-. In the current study, laboratory choice test experiments were conducted to identify which life stage (eggs, larvae, or adult) deterred oviposition. We demonstrated that the presence of live larvae on the egg-laying media consistently deterred oviposition. cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) were examined as candidate for the oviposition deterrent. CHCs of larval and adult and were analyzed. In both species, the composition of the CHCs of larvae was similar to that of adults, although quantities present were much lower. Furthermore, the CHC profiles of the two species were markedly different. However, when assayed as deterrents in the laboratory choice test experiment, CHC extracts from did not deter oviposition by .