Five compounds known to be pheromone components of longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the subfamily Cerambycinae were fi eld-tested as attractants and possible pheromones for the cerambycid fauna of Hungary. Nine cerambycid species were caught in baited traps. Large numbers of both sexes of the cerambycine species Molorchus umbellatarum Schreb. were caught in traps baited with (2R*,3S*)-octanediol, while the diastereomeric (2R*,3R*)-octanediol was to some extent attractive as well. This is the fi rst report on an aggregation attractant and a likely pheromone for a species in the cerambycine tribe Molorchini. The results of our study support the hypothesis that the diol/hydroxyketone pheromone motif is characteristic of and highly conserved within the subfamily Cerambycinae. Intraspecifi c chemical communication is summarized for the subfamily Cerambycinae, and possible links between taxonomy, insect behaviour, and pheromone structures are described

Monitoring insect populations is essential to optimise pest control with the correct protection timing and the avoidance of unnecessary insecticide use. Modern real-time monitoring practices use automatic insect traps, which are expected to be able to estimate the population sizes of pest animals with high species specificity. There are many solutions to overcome this challenge; however, there are only a few data that consider their accuracy under field conditions. This study presents an opto-electronic device prototype (ZooLog VARL) developed by us. A pilot field study evaluated the precision and accuracy of the data filtering using an artificial neural network(ANN) and the detection accuracy of the new probes. The prototype comprises a funnel trap, sensor-ring, and data communication system. The main modification of the trap was a blow-off device that prevented the escape of flying insects from the funnel. These new prototypes were tested in the field during the summer and autumn of 2018, detecting the daily and monthly flight of six moth species (Agrotis segetum, Autographa gamma, Helicoverpa armigera, Cameraria ohridella, Grapholita funebrana, Grapholita molesta). The accuracy of ANN was always higher than 60%. In the case of species with larger body sizes, it reached 90%. The detection accuracy ranged from 84% to 92% on average. These probes detected the real-time catches of the moth species. Therefore, weekly and daily patterns of moth flight activity periods could be compared and displayed for the different species. This device solved the problem of multiple counting and gained a high detection accuracy in target species cases. ZooLog VARL probes provide the real-time, time-series data sets of each monitored pest species. Further evaluation of the catching efficiency of the probes is needed. However, the prototype allows us to follow and model pest dynamics and may make more precise forecasts of population outbreaks.