The Chemical Communication and Monitoring of Sitophilus zeamais Is Robust to Deviations in Temperature

Stored product environments represent highly heterogeneous environments, with ambient temperature varying considerably between office space, milling floors, and bulk storage bins. Temperature is known to influence the assemblage of pests encountered across these environments, but the degree to which temperature influences stored product insect pheromonal communication pathways and semiochemical‐based monitoring programs remains unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we compared the volatile emissions of three strains of Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) reared at 28°C, 32°C, and 36°C, that is, a range spanning optimal and supra‐optimal temperatures for S. zeamais . The overall volatile profiles derived from cohorts of 20 mixed‐sex individuals were similar across strain and temperature regime, as was the emission rate of the aggregation pheromone, sitophilure ([4 S ,5 R ]‐5‐hydroxy‐4‐methyl‐3‐heptanone), suggesting that thermal stress has a limited effect on chemical communication in S. zeamais . Additionally, we examined how incubation at 28°C, 32°C, and 36°C influenced the emission rate of sitophilure from and S. zeamais attraction to commercial monitoring lures over 14 days. While lures incubated at 36°C emitted sitophilure at 4‐fold lower rates than those incubated at 28°C or 32°C after 7 days, lure efficacy was similar across temperature regimes. These findings suggest that both chemical communication and semiochemical‐based monitoring of S. zeamais are relatively robust to variation in ambient temperature.