Pheromone-mediated mating disruption of the European grain moth Nemapogon granellus in ham factories

Nemapogon granellus is a lepidopteran species that can cause significant damage to stored animal products such as meats, sausages and cheeses. In the warehouses where such products are stored, pheromone-based control ap-proaches can avoid or reduce insecticide chemical treatments and be more effective than traditional control methods. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mating disruption (MD) techniques to control N. granellus populations in ham factories. Trials were conducted in two factories located in Northern Italy. In both locations two warehouses were selected: a warehouse test where dispensers, loaded with 10 mg of N. granellus pheromone, were deployed at a density ranging from 1 unit/22.5 m3 (factory A) to 1 unit/25 m3 (factory B), and a control warehouse left untreated. To assess the mating disruption efficacy, the reduction of the number of mated females in water traps, placed in control and treated warehouses, was used as main parameter. The results indicated a substantial reduction in mated females in the treated warehouses in comparison with control warehouses in both the sites of experiments. In detail, the total number of mated females sampled in water traps was above 90% in control warehouses, in warehouses treated with MD technique this percentage was below 50%. In addition, a "trap shutdown" effect was recorded in MD treated warehouses of both factories. These findings suggest that mating disruption is a promising technique that can be positively applied in the integrated pest management of N. granellus in ham factories

Flower selection of Xylocopa violacea: aromatic and ornamental plants as resources in a botanic garden

We assessed the interactions between aromatic and ornamentals plants and local pollinators in a botanic garden. We focused our attention on a frequent solitary bee, Xylocopa violacea, that thanks to its large size and its feeding preferences can visit many types of flowers. By conducting linear walking transects, we recorded all flower visits by bees, highlighting those of X. violacea. We analysed bee preferences in terms of plant family, plant origin or flower morphology. We also identified plant species that were visited by X. violacea together with other foraging bees. Results indicated that X. violacea selectively visits flowering plant species at the botanic garden, preferring Lamiaceae and bilabiate flower types on which legitimate or illegitimate visits can be performed. Other bee species do concurrently visit the same plants, and in the future studies on competition, resource exploitation and pollination success will be addressed