(Horticulture) Pheromone of Apple Sawfly: New Tool for Management of a Re-emerging Pest

（园艺）苹果叶蜂的信息素：管理重新出现的害虫的新工具

• 批准号: BB/X011895/1
• 负责人: David Hall
• 金额: $ 3.2万
• 依托单位: University of Greenwich
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FX011895%2F1
• 关键词: Horticulture; Pheromone; Apple; Sawfly; New

Apple sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea, is a damaging pest of commercial apple trees. Adults emerge from the soil in spring and mate. Females are attracted to apple blossoms and lay eggs. Once the larvae hatch, they feed along the surface of young fruits causing ribbon-like scars which downgrade fruit. If the larvae enter the fruit, they tunnel in 3-4 fruits per apple cluster creating a sticky brown frass, making fruits drop or be unmarketable. In unsprayed or organic orchards apple sawfly can cause up to 90% crop loss; even at lower damage levels the costs of sorting the unmarketable fruit are a loss to the grower. Organic growers have no effective means for controlling apple sawfly other than removing infested shoots which is highly labour-intensive and still results in yield loss. In conventional orchards, apple sawfly has previously been controlled using broad-spectrum insecticides against other pests. The majority of these have now been withdrawn and apple sawfly is re-emerging as a problem even in sprayed orchards. Furthermore, spraying during flowering is to be avoided as this may impact pollinating insects and disrupt integrated pest and disease management programmes used by growers.Female sawflies attract males using long-range sex pheromones. If the chemical structures of the components of the sex pheromone of apple sawfly could be identified and synthesised, these could be used to help reduce the damage caused by this pest. Traps baited with the pheromone can be used to detect the presence of apple sawfly and apply control methods more efficiently. The pheromone might also be used to control apple sawfly by approaches such as mass trapping and mating disruption. These approaches have been used against other insect pests where the pheromone has been identified. The pheromones are non-toxic natural products, specific for the target pest and without effect on other animals and plants, and they are active in very small amounts.The project partners have previously attempted to identify the sex pheromone of apple sawfly, but have been unsuccessful due to difficulties in obtaining sufficient live insects for the work. Apple sawfly has only one generation per year and there are no known methods for laboratory culture. This short project will bring together academic and commercial partners in a concerted attempt to overcome this constraint. The knowledge and facilities of the grower partners will be used to locate orchards previously infested with apple sawfly. The academic and commercial partners will work together to develop methods for isolation of larvae and pupae from the soil and then will collect and process larger soil samples. The larvae and pupae will be reared through to adults and the process of pheromone identification will be started. It is unlikely that this will be fully completed within this project, but the results will provide a firm basis for identification of the pheromone and development of its use for management of apple sawfly in future projects. The opportunity will also be taken to set up a network of traps for monitoring adult sawfly and assess the damage caused, providing new data on the distribution and phenology of this pest.Academic partners in this project are the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, which has over 50 years of experience in identification and application of insect pheromones, and NIAB East Malling, the leading UK fruit research institute. Commercial partners are Russell IPM who already produce and sell more than 150 insect pheromones, Avalon Ltd and Agrovista, two agronomy groups who regularly advise UK growers on pest control, and Mole End and Rudford Farms, two organic apple growers who experience significant apple sawfly damage. We also have support from Delphy and PCFruit, leading fruit research and development organisations in The Netherlands and Belgium, respectively, which are keen to find new solutions to managing apple sawfly.

苹果锯蝇（Hoplocampa testudinea）是商业苹果树的一种破坏性害虫。春季成虫从土壤中出现并交配。雌性会被苹果花吸引并产卵。一旦幼虫孵化，它们就会沿着幼果的表面进食，造成丝带状疤痕，从而降低果实的等级。如果幼虫进入果实，它们会在每个苹果串 3-4 个果实中钻出隧道，形成粘稠的棕色腐烂，使果实掉落或无法销售。在未喷洒农药或有机果园中，苹果锯蝇可导致高达 90% 的农作物损失；即使损害程度较低，分类滞销水果的成本对种植者来说也是一种损失。有机种植者除了去除受感染的枝条外，没有有效的方法来控制苹果锯蝇，这是高度劳动密集型的，但仍然会导致产量损失。在传统果园中，苹果锯蝇此前曾使用广谱杀虫剂来防治其他害虫。其中大部分现已被撤回，即使在喷过农药的果园中，苹果锯蝇也重新成为一个问题。此外，应避免在开花期间喷洒农药，因为这可能会影响授粉昆虫并破坏种植者使用的综合病虫害管理计划。雌性锯蝇利用远程性信息素吸引雄性。如果可以识别并合成苹果锯蝇性信息素成分的化学结构，则可以用来帮助减少这种害虫造成的损害。用信息素作为诱饵的诱捕器可用于检测苹果锯蝇的存在并更有效地应用控制方法。信息素还可用于通过大规模诱捕和破坏交配等方法来控制苹果锯蝇。这些方法已被用于对抗已鉴定出信息素的其他害虫。这些信息素是无毒的天然产物，对目标害虫具有特异性，对其他动植物没有影响，而且在极少量的情况下就具有活性。项目合作伙伴此前曾尝试鉴定苹果锯蝇的性信息素，但一直未能成功。由于难以获得足够的活昆虫来进行工作，因此未能成功。苹果锯蝇每年仅发生一代，目前尚无已知的实验室培养方法。这个简短的项目将汇集学术和商业合作伙伴，共同努力克服这一限制。种植者合作伙伴的知识和设施将用于定位以前受苹果锯蝇侵扰的果园。学术和商业合作伙伴将共同开发从土壤中分离幼虫和蛹的方法，然后收集和处理更大的土壤样本。幼虫和蛹将被饲养到成虫，并开始信息素识别过程。这不太可能在该项目中完全完成，但结果将为信息素的识别和在未来项目中开发其用于苹果锯蝇管理的用途提供坚实的基础。还将利用这个机会建立一个陷阱网络来监测成年锯蝇并评估所造成的损害，提供有关这种害虫的分布和物候学的新数据。该项目的学术合作伙伴包括格林威治大学自然资源研究所，该公司在昆虫信息素鉴定和应用方面拥有超过 50 年的经验，以及英国领先的水果研究所 NIAB East Malling。商业合作伙伴包括 Russell IPM（已生产和销售超过 150 种昆虫信息素）、Avalon Ltd 和 Agrovista（定期为英国种植者提供害虫防治建议的两家农艺集团）以及 Mole End 和 Rudford Farms（两家遭受严重苹果锯蝇危害的有机苹果种植者） 。我们还得到了分别位于荷兰和比利时的领先水果研发组织 Delphy 和 PCFruit 的支持，它们热衷于寻找管理苹果锯蝇的新解决方案。