Evaluation of the Visual Attraction of Scaphoideus titanus, Metcalfa pruinosa and Phlogotettix cyclops to Color Traps in the Field (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae, Flatidae)

Invasive pests pose a significant threat to agriculture globally; effective monitoring methods utilizing attractive stimuli are thus essential for their management. Yellow traps are routinely used for pest monitoring, but other colors have been found to be more attractive for several species. The current study focused on the visual attraction of the invasive agricultural pests Scaphoideus titanus Ball, Metcalfa pruinosa (Say) and Phlogotettix cyclops (Mulsant et Rey) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) to color traps. Despite red traps having previously been reported to be highly attractive to S. titanus, contradictions remain about its color preference, whereas no reports on the color preference of M. pruinosa and P. cyclops are available. Field experiments were therefore conducted, testing seven different colors of sticky traps as well as transparent traps. Catches of different colors differed significantly for S. titanus (Kruskal–Wallis chi-squared = 45.361, p < 0.0001) and P. cyclops (Kruskal–Wallis chi-squared = 38.417, p < 0.0001). Our results contradict previous reports on the preference of S. titanus adults for red traps, showing an attraction to greenish-yellow, orange and yellow traps instead. Similar preferences were found in P. cyclops. For both species, catches were strongly male-biased, but both sexes showed similar color preferences. Interestingly, transparent traps performed similarly to yellow traps for S. titanus. On the other hand, no significant difference was found in the catches of different colors for M. pruinosa (Kruskal–Wallis chi-squared = 9.4661, p = 0.149, and Kruskal–Wallis chi-squared = 8.5541, p = 0.2003, for experiments 2 and 3, respectively). Implications of the ecological relevance of the findings and perspectives for potential practical applications are discussed.