In sub-Saharan Africa, the invasive South American leafminer is the most damaging tomato pest. Females of the pest can reproduce both sexually and through parthenogenesis and lay their eggs on all tomato plant parts. The mirid predator , a biological control agent for the pest, is also a tomato pest when prey population is low. To date, however, no study has developed an eco-friendly solution that targets both the predator and its host in a tomato farming system. To develop a bio-based management system for both pest and predator based on the combined use of sexual communication in the predator and visual cues. We collected volatiles from both sexes of the Kenyan population of the predator and identified candidate sex pheromone components by coupled gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). We used electrophysiological assays to identify antennally-active odorants in the volatiles, followed by field trials with different pheromone-baited colored traps to validate the responses of both predator and prey. Thereafter, we compared the reflectance spectra of the colored traps with those of different tomato plant tissues. Our results reveal an interplay between different sensory cues which in the predator–prey interaction may favor the predator. Antennae of both sexes of predator and prey detect the predator sex pheromone identified as 1-octanol and hexyl hexanoate. Unexpectedly, our field experiments led to the discovery of a lure for females, which were lured distinctly into a pheromone-baited trap whose reflectance spectrum mimicked that of ripe tomato fruit (long wavelength), an egg-laying site for females. Contrastingly, males were lured into baited white trap (short wavelength) when the predator is actively searching for prey. Our results demonstrate the novel use of a predator sex pheromone and different visual cues to assess complex trophic interactions on tomatoes.

中文翻译：

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食草性捕食者性信息素和相反反射光谱的视觉线索引诱捕食者和入侵猎物

在撒哈拉以南非洲，入侵的南美潜叶蝇是最具破坏性的番茄害虫。害虫的雌性可以通过有性生殖和单性生殖进行繁殖，并将卵产在番茄植株的所有部位。昆虫捕食者是害虫的生物防治剂，当猎物数量较少时，它也是番茄害虫。然而，迄今为止，还没有研究开发出一种既针对番茄种植系统中的捕食者又针对其宿主的环保解决方案。基于捕食者性交流和视觉线索的结合使用，开发针对害虫和捕食者的生物管理系统。我们收集了肯尼亚捕食者种群的两性挥发物，并通过气相色谱-质谱联用（GC-MS）鉴定了候选性信息素成分。我们使用电生理学测定来识别挥发物中的触角活性气味剂，然后使用不同的信息素诱饵彩色陷阱进行现场试验，以验证捕食者和猎物的反应。此后，我们将彩色陷阱的反射光谱与不同番茄植物组织的反射光谱进行了比较。我们的结果揭示了不同感官线索之间的相互作用，在捕食者与猎物的相互作用中可能有利于捕食者。捕食者和猎物的两性触角都能检测到捕食者性信息素，即 1-辛醇和己酸己酯。出乎意料的是，我们的田野实验发现了一种针对雌性的诱饵，它们明显被引诱到一个以信息素为诱饵的陷阱中，其反射光谱模仿了成熟的番茄果实（长波长），这是雌性的产卵场所。相比之下，当捕食者积极寻找猎物时，雄性会被引诱到白色诱饵（短波长）中。我们的结果证明了捕食者性信息素和不同视觉线索的新颖用途来评估番茄上复杂的营养相互作用。