Abstract: Herbivorous insect pests mainly feed on the leaves, stems, fruits, and nectar of host plants, and they usually show evident preference for specific host foods. The volatile from host foods is the key information for host-plant selection by herbivorous pests. The food-based attractants (i.e., botanical attractants), based on volatiles from the preferred plants, can function as an important technique for green pest control. During the early 20th century, the traditional food-based attractants, such as fermented sugar solution and sugar-acetic acid-ethanol, had been used to attract and kill pests. With further understanding of the volatile composition from host foods, the food-based attractants of fruit flies, noctuid moths, thrips, beetles and others have been developed by assembling synthetic volatile organic compounds. The food-based attractants mostly can effectively attract both sexes of herbivorous insect pests, and play an important role in the monitoring and controlling of some important agricultural and forest pests, such as Bactrocera dorsalis, Ceratitis capitata, Helicoverpa armigera, Cydia pomonella, Frankliniella occidentalis, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, and Tomicus piniperda. This paper summarized the experience of development and application of food-based attractants, and suggested prospective for the future development of food-based attractants, which will promote the scientific research and technical development of food-based attractants for crop insect pests.

Key words: host plant, plant volatiles, preference, behavioural manipulation, green pest control