Vibrational communication of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) and its potential use in pest control

Communication with substrate-borne vibrational signals is ubiquitous in the family Pentatomidae, but this aspect of biology of the invasive pest Halyomorpha halys (Stål 1855) has been unexplored so far, despite the enormous amount of attention the species has received in the past 15 years. To explore the possibility of using vibrations to manage this serious agricultural and household pest, we first set out to describe its basic reproductive behaviour with special reference to vibrational signals. Single animals and pairs were observed on a bean plant and a loudspeaker membrane, while recording substrate vibrations with a laser vibrometer. The males spontaneously emitted long, narrowband vibrational signals to which the nearby females replied with their own vibrational signals, which in turn triggered male searching. During this phase, the animals emitted several song types in various combinations, until they came into physical contact. At this stage the final male song type, characterized by the addition of tremulation, was the only kind of vibratory emission. Females never started singing spontaneously and the mating sequence did not proceed if either partner was silent. Male signals did not attract males nor females, whereas female signals did show clear attractiveness to the males. We tested the attractiveness of female signals in three different scenarios: potted bean plants, arenas and net cages. Using video analysis software, we measured different behavioural parameters. Our results confirmed a clear attractive effect of the female signal in all performed tests. In general, more than 50% of tested males showed a significant increase of walking speed, walked distance, time spent and number of accesses to playback stimulated areas. These results show promise for developing more efficient trapping techniques against H. halys in both agricultural and urban environments.