Surt, sa rönnbärsmalen när den bet i äpplet

The apple fruit moth, Argyresthia conjugella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae), is a most important pest of apple in Scandinavia.
The principal host of A. conjugella is rowan (mountain ash), Sorbus aucuparia. However, flowering and fruit setting in rowan is fluctuates strongly. Apple fruit moth populations build up in forests during good fruiting years, until every second to third year, when too few rowan berries are available for egg-laying. Females of A. conjugella then invade apple orchards, where the entire crop can be destroyed.

There is growing evidence that plant odours attract herbivorous insects over a distance for feeding and egg-laying. These signals allow insects to distinguish between host and non-host plants, and to explore new host plants.

These odour signals can also be used to design environmentally safe insect control techniques. Today, neurotoxic insecticides are used to control apple fruit moth. These compounds will soon be deregulated and this demands the development of new techniques.

The work proposed concerns laboratory and field studies on apple fruit moth attraction to recently identified plant volatiles. We welcome applications from biologists (ecology, chemical ecology).

This work is part of an ongoing project aiming at the use of pheromones and other semiochemicals for safe insect control in apple orchards. Tests can be done either at SLU, Alnarp and Kivik (Scania) or at Planteforsk, Lofthus (Norway).

Related project: Feromoner vinner mark
Background information: http://www.phero.net/iobc, http://www.biosignal.org, http://www-pherolist.slu.se
The project is funded by MISTRA: http://www.mistra.org
Time: May - August.
Place: Alnarp, Rörum, Kivik (Scania) or Planteforsk, Lofthus (Norway)