Acquisition System based in Electroantennography to assess the Response of Grape Berry Moth to Volatile Molecules

In Southern Europe Lobesia botrana, commonly known as the grape berry moth, is a major pest of grapes. Traditionally the control of this pest is made using insecticides, however there is an increasing public concern about the negative side effects of these products. Also in Europe there has been an increase of the regulation for the use of pesticides. Therefore new, and alternative, less harmful pest control strategies are needed. One of these strategies is mating disruption (MD). This is an innovative and sustainable technique based on the saturation of the air with large quantities of pheromones produced by the female moths, interfering with the pheromone communication and therefore reduce the number of offspring. However in the Douro region, in Portugal, this technique has not always yield the best results because of factors such as the fragmented landscape and the fact that most vineyards are small and surrounded by other vegetation that can also house the grape moth. Therefore a project to study the impact of the Douro landscape in the distribution of the pheromone cloud is undergoing, to improve the use of this technique in Douro. To assess the distribution of the cloud and which surrounding vegetation is more attractive to the moth traditional techniques such as the use of traps can be used. However more sophisticated techniques, such as Electroantennography (EAG), can be employed. In this paper it is presented the development of the acquisition system for an EAG device, in the framework of the Manuscript received March 18, 2019; revised April 1, 2019. Project Confusão sexual (CS) contra a traça-da-uva, Lobesia botrana (Denn.& Schiff.) em viticultura de montanha: caso particular da Região Demarcada do Douro (RDD) PDR2020-101-031659, financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and Portuguese State under Ação 1.1 ”Grupos Operacionais”, integrada na Medida 1. ”Inovação” do PDR 2020 – Programa de Desenvolvimento Rural do Continente. Work also supported by by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and POCI-010145-FEDER-006958, and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013 and UID/AGR/04033/201 P. Mestre is with Centro Algoritmi, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes Portugal, and Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, University of Trasos-Montes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal, www.utad.pt, (phone: +351-259350363; email: pmestre@utad.pt) C. Serodio is with Centro Algoritmi, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimaraes Portugal, and Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, University of Trasos-Montes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal, www.utad.pt, (email: cserodio@utad.pt) J. Salvação is with UTAD/ECAV Scholarship Researcher of Operational Group CSinDouro, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro School of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal, www.utad.pt, (email: jlsalvacao@hotmail.com) Cristina Carlos is with ADVID Association for the Development of Viticulture in the Douro Region, Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia de Vila Real Régia Douro Park 5000-033 Vila Real, www.advid.pt, and Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal, www.utad.pt, (email: cristina.carlos@advid.pt) Laura Torres is with Centre for the Research and Technology of AgroEnvironmental and Biological Sciences, CITAB, University of Tras-osMontes and Alto Douro, UTAD, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal, www.utad.pt, (email: ltorres@utad.pt) above mentioned project.