Abstract
Methyl anthranilate, a common flower volatile component, was found to be a potent attractant for four species of flower thrips, Thrips hawaiiensis, T. coloratus, T. flavus, and Megalurothrips distalis, irrespective of sex. Methyl anthranilate attracted significantly larger numbers of these four species than p-anisaldehyde, an already-known attractant for several species of flower thrips. The attractiveness of the related compounds varied between the species: Within 13 related compounds; two positional isomers and 11 functional-group-substituted compounds; o-anisidine and o-aminoacetophenone for T. hawaiiensis, and methyl m-aminobenzoate, o-anisidine, methyl benzoate and methyl o-toluate for T. coloratus, were almost as attractive as methyl anthranilate. Meanwhile, no compounds except for methyl anthranilate were attractive to T. flavus and M. distalis.
