Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Sec. Chemical Ecology

Plant volatiles drive Spodoptera frugiperda behavioral preference to sweet corn

Provisionally accepted
Christian Neckie NattChristian Neckie Natt1Chaoqun YiChaoqun Yi1,2Longfei ShiLongfei Shi3Ruonan LiRuonan Li1,4Adel KhashavehAdel Khashaveh1Wentao LiuWentao Liu1,4Yongjun ZhangYongjun Zhang1*
  • 1Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
  • 2College of Plant Protection, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
  • 3Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Plant Protection, Beijing, China
  • 4College of Plant Protection, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

Fall Armyworm (FAW), also known as Spodoptera frugiperda, is a globally significant invasive Lepidoptera pest that causes severe damage to agricultural crops, particularly corn (Zea mays). In this study, a two-way choice experiment was conducted to compare the attraction of FAW larvae and adults to regular corn (RC) and sweet corn (SC). Using solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we identified four volatile compounds with higher expression levels in sweet corn compared to regular corn: hexanal, trans-2-hexen-1-ol, linalool, and β-caryophyllene. Electroantennogram (EAG) experiments revealed that trans-2-hexen-1-ol evoked the strongest antennal response in FAW adults. Furthermore, FAW larvae exhibited a significant feeding preference for sweet corn, and fertilized females also showed a pronounced oviposition preference for sweet corn. These highly volatile sweet corn compounds identified in this study are expected to be used as behavioral disruption technologies, an environmentally friendly alternative to regular insecticides for managing fall armyworm. These findings provide a scientific basis for the development of integrated pest management (IPM) strategies based on volatile compounds.

Keywords: Spodoptera frugiperda, Volatile Organic Compounds, Electroantennogram recording, Behavioral Ecology, host preference

Received: 26 Oct 2025; Accepted: 30 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Natt, Yi, Shi, Li, Khashaveh, Liu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yongjun Zhang

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material