{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.045909090909090906, 'fraction_numerical': 0.031363636363636364, 'mean_word_length': 4.776902887139108, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 6, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
(Z)-11-hexadecenal Attracts Male Hecatera dysodea (Denis and Schiffermüller) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Hecatera dysodea (Denis and Schiffermüller) is a Palearctic noctuid moth (Poole 1989, Hacket et al. 2002) that is now established in Oregon and Washington of the western United States (Landolt et al. 2010). The larvae feed on flower buds and flowers of Lactuca spp. (lettuce) and a few related species within the Asteraceae (South 1920; Skinner 1984). The larvae are widely found in eastern Washington and northern Oregon on prickly lettuce, Lactuca serriola (L.), (Landolt et al. 2010). There is a potential threat to commercial producers of lettuce seed, because it has also been found feeding on the flowers of garden lettuce, L. sativa, in Washington (PJL personal observation) and Great Britain (Bretherton et al. 1979). The distribution and abundance of H. dysodea in the western United States has been documented by the sampling of larvae on host plants, and collections of adults from lights, light-traps, and traps baited with ethanol or floral chemicals (Landolt et al. 2010, 2011). Monitoring of any further spread of the moth or detection in commercial lettuce seed fields might be more effective using a sex pheromone or sex attractant, which are known for many other pest moth species (Mayer and McLaughlin 1990). However, there are no sex pheromones or sex attractants identified for H. dysodea, other species of Hecatera, or species in the related genus Hadena. A putative sex attractant for H. dysodea was incidentally discovered in a field test of a sex attractant for sod webworm moths, Crambus spp. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae). Landolt and Roberts (2012) captured Crambus cypridalus (Hulst) males in traps baited with a rubber septum loaded with a blend of one mg of (Z)-11-hexadecenyl acetate (Z11-16AC) and 100 μg of (Z)-11-hexadecenal (Z11-16ALD). When these two chemicals were tested separately and together to determine the trap response of C. cypridalus (Landolt and Roberts 2012), H. dysodea males were unexpectedly trapped in addition to C. cypridalus. We report here a series of field tests demonstrating the attraction of H. dysodea to one of those chemicals, Z11-16ALD.