Mendel, Z., Adar, K., Nestel, D., & Dunkelblum, E. 1997 Sex pheromone traps as a tool for the study of population trends of the predator of a scale insect and for the identification of potential predators for biological control.. IOBC/WPRS Bulletin 20: 231-240.

Notes: Technology transfer in mating disruption. Proceedings of a working group meeting in Montpellier, France, on 9-10 September 1996. The capture of adults of Elatophilus hebraicus in traps baited with the sex pheromone (56:44 mixture of (2E,6E,8E)-5,7-dimethyl-2,6,8-decatrien-4-one and (2E,6Z,8E)-5,7-dimethyl-2,6,8-decatrien-4-one) of Matsucoccus josephi enabled the study of population trends of both species. Traps were exposed at monthly intervals in stands of Pinus halepensis and P. brutia ssp. brutia in Israel during 1993-95. The population density of M. josephi increased in March-April and in August and October. A steep increase in trap catch of E. hebraicus was noticeable during May and June. The rise of the predator population was positively related, but only to a limited extent, to the increase in prey density in the previous spring. On an annual basis, an inverse relationship was found between the mean densities of M. josephi and E. hebraicus. Population trends of both prey and predator varied slightly between regions, but not between host plant species. Pheromone traps were used in additional areas of the Palaearctic region where other Matsucoccus species occur. It was found that the range of E. hebraicus and M. josephi coincides with that of P. brutia ssp. brutia in the East Mediterranean. In P. pinaster stands in Portugal, two other predators, E. crassicornis and Hemerobius stigma were caught in traps baited with M. josephi pheromone.