Short Communication: Attractiveness of subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus to plant leaf extracts

Indrayani Y, Muin M, Adilla C, Yoshimura T. 2018. Short Communication: Attractiveness of subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus to plant leaf extracts. Biodiversitas 19: 1176-1180. Plant-derived compounds have many potential uses. One such use is in agriculture for managing pests with less risk than with synthetic compounds that are toxicologically and environmentally undesirable. The current study focuses on the potential use of leaf extracts from five tropical plant species in attractant bait systems for controlling subterranean termites. Leaves from clove [Syzygium aromaticum (L.)], cajuput (Melaleuca leucadendra L.), cinnamon [Cinnamomum burmannii (Nees & T. Nees) Blume], basil (Ocimum sanctum L.) and bay (Syzygium polyanthum Wight) were extracted with 70% ethanol solution. Each extract was evaluated for its attractant properties for Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki using olfactory and Y-line trail following tests, respectively. Extract solutions were diluted to 1% concentration based on their eugenol content. For each test, which was replicated 15 times, a single worker was introduced into the test unit. The results showed that M. leucadendra crude extract was the most attractive among the five plant crude extracts, and the S. aromaticum crude extract was attractive especially in the trail-following test. The attraction rates were 40.00%, 80.00%, 53.33%, 60.00% and 46.67% for the S. aromaticum, M. leucadendra, C. burmannii, O. sanctum and S. polyanthum extracts, respectively. The trail-following rates were 86.67% for the S. aromaticum extract, 66.67% for the M. leucadendra extract, 53.33% for the C. burmannii extract, 20% for the O. sanctum extract as well as 26.67% for the S. polyanthum extract.