The floral biology of cacao. 1. Attractants and food substances for adult midges. In: Theobroma v. 11 p. 47-52, 1981.

Abstract

Hypothesis that such compounds as butyric acid, amyl acetate, propionic acid, geraniol, hydrolized prolein, ethyl alcohol, eugenol methyl ether, anethol U.S.P., eugenol U.S.P. extra, trimed-Iure and sugar cane molasses were efficient as adult midge attractants were rejected after field tests in cacao plantations in Turrialba, Costa Rica. New approaches of research such as fractional analysis of flower tissues are consequently proposed to find out the kind of compounds that are involved in atuacting the midges to the cacao flowers. This method replaces that of random choice of chemicals whlch proved efficient for dipterans of olher famities but not for ceratopogonid midges.