Author(s)

Brittany D. Lampson^1*, David C. Degenhardt², Jeremy K. Greene³, Ahmad Khalilian¹, Young J. Han¹

¹Department of Agricultural Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.
²Ridge View High School, Columbia, SC, USA.
³Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA.

The kudzu bug, Megacopta cribraria (Fabricius), recently became an invasive insect pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr. in the southeastern USA capable of reducing crop yield by as much as 60% if left untreated. To reduce these losses and minimize control costs, new methods for detecting kudzu bugs must be investigated in order to optimize control measures. One such method would be to detect volatiles released by kudzu bugs. An electronic portable device was developed to draw volatile organic compounds (VOCs) produced by kudzu bugs over carbon black-polymer composite sensors and measure the change in resistance for each sensor. Sensors made using polymers poly (bisphenol A carbonate) (p = 0.041), poly (styrene-co-allyl alcohol) (p = 0.017) and poly (vinylpyrrolidone) (p = 0.040) showed significant differences in resistance change for M. cribraria VOCs over the control. A logistic regression was 94.4% accurate based on the resistance changes from sensors made from polymers poly (4-vinylphenol), poly (styrene-co-allyl alcohol), and poly (vinylpyrrolidone) as features. These results indicate the capability of the device to detect kudzu bugs by detecting volatiles released by the insects.

Carbon Black-Polymer Composites, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Megacopta cribraria , Sensors, Volatiles

Lampson, B. , Degenhardt, D. , Greene, J. , Khalilian, A. and Han, Y. (2017) Development of a Portable Electronic Sensor for Detection of the Kudzu Bug, Megacopta cribraria (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Plataspidae). Advances in Entomology, 5, 75-86. doi: 10.4236/ae.2017.53007.