Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 9, 2026

A Wind Tunnel for Odor Mediated Insect Behavioural Assays
Published on: November 30, 2018
Aggregation of Thaumatomyia glabra (Diptera: Chloropidae) Males on Iris spp. Flowers Releasing Methyl Anthranilate
Bonnie J Ohler1, Christelle Guédot2, Richard S Zack3
1Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (ohler.bonnie@gmail.com; guedot@wisc.edu).
Abstract:
Aggregations of Thaumatomyia glabra (Diptera: Chloropidae) were observed on flowers of Iris pallida Lamarck (Asparagales: Iridaceae), whereas no T. glabra (Meigen) were observed on nearby Iris germanica L. flowers. Sampling of T. glabra on I. pallida flowers revealed the presence of males only. In a previous study, T. glabra males were attracted to methyl anthranilate. We found methyl anthranilate in extracts of I. pallida flowers on which T. glabra aggregated, but not in extracts of I. germanica flowers. Applying methyl anthranilate to I. germanica flowers elicited attraction of T. glabra to the flowers. This study suggests that I. pallida flowers may attract T. glabra males to aggregate because they release the known attractant, methyl anthranilate, whereas I. germanica flowers may not be attractive because they do not release methyl anthranilate.

