Abstract
Abstract The European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis (Heteroptera: Miridae), inflicts serious damage to glasshouse crops, including cucumber, in which it causes distorted foliage, dead growing points and malformed fruits. In a research involving commercial growers, we tested the possibility of using a trap crop to control L. rugulipennis . We screened the attraction of sunflower and lucerne as trap crops using an olfactometer. Adults (females and males) were more attracted to the odour of either flowering sunflower or lucerne than flowering cucumber. In a glasshouse trial, potted flowering sunflowers were evaluated as a trap crop placed at the ends of each cucumber row. Although the trap crop showed much higher attractiveness than the cucumber crop, this effect was not sufficient to provide an acceptable level of control according to the commercial growers. The growers suggested developing artificial sunflower odour as a more efficient lure for removal trapping. As a first step in this development, we tested the attraction of the headspace odour collected from sunflower in olfactometer trials. Sunflower headspace attracted a higher number of adults compared to a blank or a flowering cucumber. The sunflower odour was analysed by gas chromatography coupled to mass‐spectrometry to determine compounds possibly involved in L. rugulipennis attraction. The chemical analysis of the plant odour showed a well‐defined differentiation between sunflower and cucumber, with a number of monoterpenes released exclusively by sunflower. This, plus an emission rate from sunflower being at least four times more abundant, opens the possibility of using synthetic sunflower volatiles to attract L. rugulipennis within a cucumber background.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Adults of Lygus rugulipennis were more attracted to the odour of flowering sunflower or lucerne than to flowering cucumber in olfactometer trials.
- Taxon
- Sunflower
Helianthus annuust0 - Treatment
- odour of either flowering sunflower or lucernee1
- Interactor
- Lygus rugulipennis
Lygus rugulipennise0pest - Outcome
- attractione1
- Direction
- more attractede1
- Comparator
- flowering cucumbere1
- Setting
- olfactometere1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

%2C_Doorwerth%2C_the_Netherlands.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
t0“Sunflower as a trap crop for the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis)”
e0“The European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis (Heteroptera: Miridae), inflicts serious damage to glasshouse crops”
e1“We screened the attraction of sunflower and lucerne as trap crops using an olfactometer. Adults (females and males) were more attracted to the odour of either flowering sunflower or lucerne than flowering cucumber”
Claim · model-written summary
In a glasshouse trial, potted flowering sunflowers as a trap crop showed much higher attractiveness than the cucumber crop.
- Taxon
- Sunflower
Helianthus annuust0 - Treatment
- potted flowering sunflowerse2
- Outcome
- attractivenesse3
- Direction
- much highere3
- Comparator
- cucumber crope3
- Setting
- glasshousee2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
t0“Sunflower as a trap crop for the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis)”
e2“In a glasshouse trial, potted flowering sunflowers were evaluated as a trap crop placed at the ends of each cucumber row”
e3“Although the trap crop showed much higher attractiveness than the cucumber crop, this effect was not sufficient to provide an acceptable level of control according to the commercial growers”
Claim · model-written summary
The potted flowering sunflower trap crop did not provide an acceptable level of Lygus rugulipennis control according to commercial growers.
- Taxon
- Sunflower
Helianthus annuust0 - Treatment
- potted flowering sunflowerse2
- Interactor
- Lygus rugulipennis
Lygus rugulipennise0pest - Outcome
- acceptable level of controle3
- Setting
- glasshousee2
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

%2C_Doorwerth%2C_the_Netherlands.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
t0“Sunflower as a trap crop for the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis)”
e0“The European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis (Heteroptera: Miridae), inflicts serious damage to glasshouse crops”
e2“In a glasshouse trial, potted flowering sunflowers were evaluated as a trap crop placed at the ends of each cucumber row”
e3“Although the trap crop showed much higher attractiveness than the cucumber crop, this effect was not sufficient to provide an acceptable level of control according to the commercial growers”
Claim · model-written summary
Sunflower headspace attracted a higher number of Lygus rugulipennis adults than a blank or a flowering cucumber.
- Taxon
- Sunflower
Helianthus annuust0 - Treatment
- Sunflower headspacee4
- Interactor
- Lygus rugulipennis
Lygus rugulipennise0pest - Outcome
- number of adultse4
- Direction
- highere4
- Comparator
- a blank or a flowering cucumbere4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

%2C_Doorwerth%2C_the_Netherlands.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
t0“Sunflower as a trap crop for the European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis)”
e0“The European tarnished plant bug, Lygus rugulipennis (Heteroptera: Miridae), inflicts serious damage to glasshouse crops”
e4“Sunflower headspace attracted a higher number of adults compared to a blank or a flowering cucumber”
Claim · model-written summary
Sunflower released monoterpenes exclusively, as shown by chemical analysis of its odour.
- Taxon
- sunflower
Helianthus annuuse5 - Outcome
- monoterpenes released exclusively by sunflowere5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e5“The chemical analysis of the plant odour showed a well-defined differentiation between sunflower and cucumber, with a number of monoterpenes released exclusively by sunflower”
Claim · model-written summary
Chemical analysis of the odour showed a well-defined differentiation between sunflower and cucumber.
- Taxon
- sunflower
Helianthus annuuse5 - Outcome
- well-defined differentiation between sunflower and cucumbere5
- Comparator
- cucumbere5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e5“The chemical analysis of the plant odour showed a well-defined differentiation between sunflower and cucumber, with a number of monoterpenes released exclusively by sunflower”
Claim · model-written summary
The emission rate of sunflower volatiles is at least four times higher than that of cucumber.
- Taxon
- sunflower
Helianthus annuuse6 - Outcome
- emission ratee6
- Direction
- more abundante6
- Value
- at least four timese6
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e6“This, plus an emission rate from sunflower being at least four times more abundant, opens the possibility of using synthetic sunflower volatiles to attract L. rugulipennis within a cucumber background”
Claim · model-written summary
Synthetic sunflower volatiles may be used to attract Lygus rugulipennis within a cucumber background.
- Taxon
- sunflower
Helianthus annuuse7 - Interactor
- L. rugulipennis
Lygus rugulipennise7pest - Outcome
- using synthetic sunflower volatiles to attract L. rugulipennise7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

%2C_Doorwerth%2C_the_Netherlands.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e7“opens the possibility of using synthetic sunflower volatiles to attract L. rugulipennis within a cucumber background”
The same questions in other papers
Helianthus · pest · Helianthus annuus (common sunflower)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
- negative
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.