Comparison of pheromone trap design and lures for Spodoptera frugiperda in Togo and genetic characterization of moths caught Robert L. Meagher Jr 1 * , Komi Agboka 2 , Agbeko Kodjo Tounou 2 , Djima Koffi 3 , Koffi Aquilas Agbevohia 2 , Tomfe € ı Richard Amouze 2 , Kossi Mawuko Adj  evi 2 & Rodney N. Nagoshi 1 1 USDA-ARS CMAVE, Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research Unit, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA , 2 Ecole Sup  erieure d’Agronomie, Universit  e de Lom e, 01 BP 1515, Lom e 1, Togo , and 3 Africa Regional Postgraduate Programme in Insect Science, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana Accepted: 29 November 2018 Key words: fall armyworm, monitoring, host strain markers, maize, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, integrated pest management, IPM, rice, Leucania loreyi, COI gene, Tpi gene Abstract Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a pest of grain and vegetable crops endemic to the Western Hemisphere that has recently become widespread in sub- Saharan Africa and has appeared in India. An important tool for monitoring S. frugiperda in the USA is pheromone trapping, which would be of value for use with African populations. Field experiments were conducted in Togo (West Africa) to compare capture of male fall armyworm using three com- mercially available pheromone lures and three trap designs. The objectives were to identify optimum trap 9 lure combinations with respect to sensitivity, specificity, and cost. Almost 400 moths were captured during the experiment. Differences were found in the number of S. frugiperda moths cap- tured in the various trap designs and with the three pheromone lures, and in the number of non-tar- get moths captured with each lure. The merits of each trap 9 lure combination are discussed with respect to use in Africa. A nearly equal number of COI-CS (161) and COI-RS (158) moths was cap- tured with no differences found in COI marker proportions among traps or lures. However, the diag- nostic rice strain marker Tpi was rarely found. Overall, the genetic characterization of the pheromone trap collections indicated a consistent distribution of genetic markers from 2016 to 2017, suggesting a population at or near equilibrium. Introduction Insect species are constantly shifting among continents and between hemispheres through natural movement and human-aided transport. Species endemic to Africa – such as the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida Murray (Neu- mann et al., 2016), Africanized honey bee, Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier (Eimanifar et al., 2018), Mediter- ranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (De Meyer, 2005), and longhorn crazy ant, Paratrechina longi- cornis (Latreille) (Deyrup et al., 2000) – have traveled west and became established in North America. Recently, an insect species has traveled east from the Western Hemisphere to Africa and Asia. The fall army- worm, Spodoptera frugiperda (JE Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was discovered in western Africa in early 2016 (Goergen et al., 2016). By late 2017, S. frugiperda had invaded most of sub-Saharan Africa where it has the potential to cause maize yield losses between 21–53% in primarily smallholder farms (Abrahams et al., 2017). It was found in the state of Karnataka, India, in 2018 (Gani- ger et al., 2018). This species is endemic to the Neotropics, attacking row, vegetable, and turf crops (Luttrell & Mink, 1999; Braman et al., 2000; Nuessly et al., 2007; Souza et al., 2013). In the USA, fall armyworm annually migrates northward each spring from sites in southern Florida (Pair et al., 1986; Mitchell et al., 1991) and southern Texas (Raulston et al., 1986; Pair et al., 1991). *Correspondence: Robert L. Meagher Jr, USDA-ARS CMAVE, 1700 SW 23rd Dr., Gainesville, FL 32608, USA. E-mail: rob.meagher@ars.usda.gov © 2019 The Netherlands Entomological Society Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 1–10, 2019 1 DOI: 10.1111/eea.12795