Sex pheromone of the female large cabbage-heart caterpillar, Crocidolomia binotalis Zeller (Lepidoptera:Pyralidae)

Sex pheromone components of the female Crocidolomia binotalis, an insect pest of cabbages in Indonesia, were identified from the ovipositor tip extract of virgin females by analyzing with chromatographic fractionation and capillary GC/MS. In an EAG response and attractivity test with a wind tunnel system, a mixture of synthetic compounds, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (Z-9-TDA) and (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (Z-11-HDA), in the ratio of 1:7-1:60 and an amount of 1-50 ng on a filter paper, showed strong activities comparable to the activity of the ovipositor tip extract, which contained the two compounds at a ratio of c. 1:10 (Z-9-TDA:Z-11-HDA). The mixture of these two compounds might be the sex pheromone of C. binotalis.