Attraction of Short Chain Alcohols to Scarab Beetle, Potosia brevitarsis

The semichemical ethanol of Potosia brevitarsis Lewis from the volatiles which was collected from air passed over peach fruits infested by the beetles was identified using GC-MS. The attraction of ethanol and its 8 analogous——methanol, n-propanol, i-propanol, n-butanol, i-butanol, t-butanol, n-pentanol and n-hexanol were determined in the field. The results showed that methanol, ethanol, n- and i- propanol had attractive activity to the scarab beetle, in which the activity of ethanol and i-propanol were much higher. The attraction of ethanol was as the same as its 10 times dilution, but the activity of propanol was decreased as its diluting time increased. In the blends of ethanol and i-propanol, the ratio with highest activity was 1∶ 1(V/V). And the attractive activity of all the blends became lower as the concentration decreased.