PHEROMONE TRAP FOR MONITORING COPITARSIA DECOLORA (LEPIDOPTERA: NOCTUIDAE) ACTIVITY IN CRUCIFEROUS CROPS IN MEXICO

Copitarsia decolora (Guenee) is an important pest of several crops such in Mexico, Central and South America. In addition, this species is a regulatory concern in the USA. In this work, we investigated the influence of trap design, trap height, and trap color on pheromone trap catches of C. decolora males in cruciferous crops. Additionally, we investigated the seasonal dynamics of C. decolara for 3 yr. The water-trap captured a significantly higher number of males compared to the jug trap and the Scentry (R) Heliothis trap. There were no significant differences between in the number of males captured by traps positioned at 0.5, 1, and 1.5 m above ground level. There was also no an interaction between trap design and trap height. Green water-traps captured more males than red water-traps, however, the catches of red water-traps were intermediate and not significantly different from those captured by yellow, blue, and brown water-traps. A total of 6,978 C. decolora males were captured during the 3 yr of trapping. The overall distribution of trap captures over the season was unimodal, with a distinctive peak in trap catches occurring between Mar and Apr.