A plant-derived volatile blend for dual-stage attraction of Lasioderma serricorne: Optimization, behavioral evaluation, and molecular insights

Lasioderma serricorne is a major pest of stored tobacco, and severe economic losses are primarily caused by larval feeding. Commercial sex pheromone lures target only male adults and therefore provide limited monitoring across developmental stages. In this study, twelve plant-derived volatiles were evaluated for their behavioral activity against adults and larvae, and a plant-derived attractant effective against both stages was developed through orthogonal design. Behavioral bioassays identified α-ionone, β-ionone, citral, p-cymene, and lavender essential oil as active attractants for both adults and larvae. β-Ionone showed the strongest attraction to larvae, whereas lavender essential oil produced the most consistent attraction to adults. An L 16 (4 5 ) orthogonal design was used to optimize the blend composition, and the optimal formulation (A 1 B 4 C 4 F 4 H 4 ) achieved selection indices of 0.73 for adults and 0.72 for larvae, both significantly higher than those of the other formulations. Validation tests showed that the optimized formulation achieved adult trapping efficacy comparable to that of a commercial sex pheromone lure, while increasing cumulative larval captures by 2.2-fold over an 8-day period. Molecular docking analysis showed that β-ionone exhibited binding free energies below −6 kcal/mol with multiple LserOBPs. The interactions were dominated by hydrophobic forces, and Phe55 was identified as a key residue involved in ligand binding. The plant-derived attractant developed in this study effectively attracted both adults and larvae of L. serricorne . These findings provide a basis for developing plant-based attractants for monitoring and sustainable management of this stored-product pest.