The Comparison of Lepidoptera Population Interested in the Traps
with Plant-based Attractants in the Oil Palm of Plantation
Wahyunita
1
, Marheni
2*
and Darma Bakti
2
1
Magister of Agrotechnology Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sumatera Utara,
Padang Bulan, Medan – 20155 Indonesia
2
Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Padang Bulan, Medan – 20155 Indonesia
Keywords: Traps, Plant-based attractants, Lepidoptera, PTPN IV, Oil palm of plantation.
Abstract: The insect of populations from the Lepidoptera order were evaluated on three different blocks in the palm
oil of plantation of PTPN IV Adolina, Serdang Bedagai Sumatera Utara. The three blocks were located
contiguous with an eight-year plant life. The observations were made for 24 hours of the day from April to
May 2018 by using two types of traps with four types of attractants derived from the pulp and the jackfruit
leather and the pulp and the pineapple leather. There were 611 Lepidopteran which was collected from the
traps during this study. The Jackfruit was the most abundant with a total of 347 Lepidopteran, then it
followed by pineapples, the pineapple peel and jackfruit leather respectively 111, 85 and 57 Lepidopteran.
This study showed that the population abundance of Lepidoptera order was higher in the jackfruit compared
with the pineapple, the pineapple peel, and the jackfruit leather in both the types of traps.
1 INTRODUCTION
The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) as a plant
producing palm oil Crude Palm Oil/ CPO and
Kernel Palm Oil/ KPO, is one of the excellent
plantations of which were part of foreign non-oil for
Indonesia (Widanengsih, 2015). Palm oil pest
attacks are the most common constraints faced by oil
palm farmers, especially insect pests. Insect pests
can lead to significant reductions in palm oil
production, even in the case of the death of palm oil
(Tambunan et al., 2013). For example, the main
pests in oil palm crops are nettle caterpillars and
bagworms (Suhunan et al., 2015) from the
Lepidoptera.
Herbivorous insects from the Lepidoptera are
potentially destroy to oil palm plantations, because
in the larval stages of these insects feed on oil palm
leaves. These palm oil-eating insects are known as
palm-eaten worms. Controls that have been done
using chemical pesticides that we know are harmful
to the environment. Therefore it is necessary to keep
searching for environmentally friendly control to
control these pests.
Plant pest control can be done using traps that
use the plant part as attractant. The possibility of
pest control using traps with fruit as attractants have
been reported (Amzah and John, 2014; Syamsul et
al., 2016; Suartini et al., 2015; and Mustikawati et
al., 2016).
This study was designed to compare composition
and insect populations of the Lepidoptera in PTPN
IV palm oil plantations based on their interest in two
types of traps with four different plant-based
attractants.
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
2.1 Research Site Description
The research has been conducted in PTPN IV palm
oil plantation, in Afdeling III on N block (repeat I),
L (repeat II) and K (repeat III) owned by PTPN IV
Adolina Serdang Bedagai Regency. The three blocks
are 8 years old (planting year 2010), with the
respective area of 13.03 Ha, 19.37 Ha, and 13.50 Ha.
The study was conducted from April to May 2018.
446
Wahyunita, ., Marheni, . and Bakti, D.
The Comparison of Lepidoptera Population Interested in the Traps with Plant-based Attractants in the Oil Palm of Plantation.
DOI: 10.5220/0009904400002480
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development (ICNRSD 2018), pages 446-450
ISBN: 978-989-758-543-2
Copyright
c
 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

2.2 Experimental Set-up
This study was designed using Randomized Block
Design (RBD) with two factors. The first factor is
the trap model (P), with two treatment levels; a box
trap without hole at the top of the trap (P
1
) and a
modified box trap with 5 holes in the top of the trap
(P
2)
. The second factor is plant-based attractants (A).
With five levels of treatment namely; without
attractant (A
0
), pineapple pulp (A
1
), pineapple peel
(A
2
), jackfruit pulp (A
3
), and jackfruit leather (A
4
),
so that the treatment obtained by 10 combinations.
The study was conducted in three replications, so
that 30 treatments were obtained.
2.3 Implementation of Research
2.3.1 Trap Preparation
Thick bamboo cut along 50 cm split into 6 parts with
a machete. It takes as many as 14 bamboo blades to
create one square trap, and two of them are ± 75 cm
long. The bamboo blades are attached to the nails so
that they are square. Furthermore from the outside of
the trap box is covered with gauze with 10 cm from
the bottom/foot trap as the entry point of target
insects (Dedek Haryadi, 2018, personal
communication). As for the trap modification, at the
top of the trap made 4 cms diameter as much as five
holes, as well as insect entry (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Traps using plant-based attractants; A. The basic
trap model; B. Modified trap model (top view). Caption; a.
Trap length, 50 cm; b. High trap, 40 cm; c. Trap width, 50
cm; d. Foot height, 10 cm; e. Length of rope for binding
and hanging attractant, 35 cm; f. Attractant hung on plastic
ropes; g. The trap surface area covered with gauze; h. The
depth of the soil scraped to put detergent water as an
insect trapper, 5 cm; i. Place detergent water laid; j.
Absorption diameter at the top of the modified trap, 4 cm
2.3.2 Sampling Method
The traps placed on each block of oil palm for each
treatment, where the block is repeated. The traps in
each test is 10 pieces. Distance between traps 100 m.
The location of 10 traps is randomized for each
repeat on the block. Plastic transparent measuring 60
x 60 cm placed on the ground surface in a pile that
had previously been scraped as deep as ± 5 cm. Then
inserted detergent that had been diluted with water
onto the plastic until flooded. Then place the trap
above it, and on the inside of the trap is hung fruit as
the attractant in accordance with the treatment using
a plastic strap along ± 35 cm. The four types of
plant-based attractants in this study were inserted
into the gauze to prevent the attractant from falling
into the trap water detergent. There is no reference
library to determine how much the use of
attractiveness is appropriate to be used as
attractiveness. So in this study, used plant-based
attractant as much as 200 g for each treatment to
create uniformity. Insect sampling was performed 24
times with time interval sampling is daily (six days
in a week) for four weeks. Insect loading is carried
out using tweezers and inserted into a sample bottle
which has been filled with 70% alcohol, and then
covered with plastic wrap. The sample bottle is
labeled according to the treatment and date of the
data retrieval.
2.3.3 Turns The Attractant
Fruits are replaced every seventh day during insect
sampling, it was four times. Fruit turnover at 17.00
wib afternoon. The next day the trapped insects were
taken to count the number of insects of the trapped
lepidopteran, and so on until the 24th insect
sampling.
2.4 Data Analysis
All insects Lepidopteran trapped were counted on
each type of trap. Then analyzed using Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) to compare the number of
herbivorous cluster population from Lepidoptera
which attracted to trap, attractant and interaction of
both.
The Comparison of Lepidoptera Population Interested in the Traps with Plant-based Attractants in the Oil Palm of Plantation
447

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Lepidoptera Composition in Oil
Palm of Plantation
Lepidoptera that have been collected from a
combination of traps there are 12 different species
based on their morphological, temporarily sp1, sp2,
sp3, sp4, sp5, sp6, sp7, sp8, sp9, sp10, sp11 and sp
12. The number of each of the twelve species during
the study can be seen in Table 1. From Table 1 can
be seen that sp 1 has the highest number (168
individuals) followed by sp 5 and sp 8 with the same
number (73 individuals), sp 3 (63 individuals), sp 2
(55 individuals), sp 9 (44 individuals), sp 6 (43
individuals), sp 10 (35 individuals), sp 12 (25
individuals), sp 7 (19 individuals), sp 4 (11
individuals), and the least is sp 11 (2 individuals).
Table 1: Families of the Lepidoptera order attracted to two
types of traps with different attractants
No
Families of
Lepidoptera
Number Trapped
1. s
p
1
(
Oeco
p
horidae
)
168
2. s
p
2
(
P
y
ralidae
)
55
3. s
p
3
(
P
y
ralidae
)
63
4. sp 4 (Pyralidae) 11
5. sp 5 (Pyralidae) 73
6. s
p
6
(
P
y
ralidae
)
43
7. s
p
7
(
P
y
ralidae
)
19
8. s
p
8
(
P
y
ralidae
)
73
9. sp 9 (Pyralidae) 44
10. sp 10 (Torticidae) 35
11. sp 11 (Torticidae) 2
12. s
p
12
(
Torticidae
)
25
Total 611
According to Rhaind et al. (2002), the abundance
of insects in oil palm cultivation is appropriate or
distributed in accordance with their role in the oil
palm ecosystem. Insects from the Lepidoptera order
usually act as pests in oil palm crops, such as nettle
caterpillars and bagworms (Suhunan et al., 2015).
3.2 Lepidoptera Population in
Combination of Traps and
Attractants
A total of 611individuals under the Lepidoptera
order were collected in this study (Table 1). The
results showed that the trap with the trappings of
jackfruit pulp has the highest population followed by
pineapple fruit, pineapple peel and jackfruit leather.
Traps P
1
A
3
recorded the highest population of
insects of the order Lepidoptera (197 individuals),
followed by P
2
A
3
(150 individuals), P
1
A
1
(71
individuals), P
1
A
2
(59 individuals), P
1
A
4
(44
individuals), P
2
A
1
(40 individuals), P
2
A
2
(26
individuals), P
2
A
4
(13 individuals), P
1
A
0
(9
individuals) and P
2
A
0
recorded the smallest number
with two individuals (Figure 1).
Pest traps, in addition to the traps themselves
that can make the trapped pest can also be added to
the material or attractant so as to attract pests to
enter the trap. This type of trap usually uses fruits or
parts of plants that have a strong enough smell.
Figure 2: Comparison insects population of the
Lepidoptera based on their interest to trapped with
different attractants in oil palm plantations.
Plants with fruit that has a distinctive and strong
smell include pineapple (Ananas comosus L. Merr.)
and jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lamk).
Likewise, jackfruit leather has a fragrance that is not
much different from the pulp. One of the chemical
compounds that play a role in providing the color,
smell and taste of the fruit is the Flavonoid that
attracts the insects to come (Koes et al., 1994).
Flavonoids are contained in pineapple pulp
(Jeragamreddy et al., 2013), jackfruit pulp (Jagtap et
al., 2010), and jackfruit leather (Shrikanta et al.,
2013). Flavonoids are a group of polyphenol
compounds that are present naturally in most fruit
and vegetable crops, most of which are yellow, red
and blue (Jagtap et al., 2010). Flavonoids for plants
act as insect attractants that play a role in the
pollination process and attract the attention of
animals that help spread seed (Hasiholan, 2012).
The use of traps in the management of insect
pests is precise, specific, and ecological. And
attractants were used in sampling of insect
populations and for timing of insecticide
applications in crops (Metcalf and Luckmann,
1982).
ICNRSD 2018 - International Conference on Natural Resources and Sustainable Development
448

In this study, each of the different types of traps
and attractants affected the insect population of
Lepidoptera that entered the trap (it can be see in
Table 2 above).The result of ANOVA showed that
the use of box trap had significant effect on insect
population of Lepidoptera where F count (5.01) > F
table 5% (4.35). Likewise, the use of attractiveness
had a very significant effect on the number of insect
population of the lepidoptera order caught with F
count (16.19) > F table 5% (2.87). However, the
interaction between types of traps with attractants
has F count (0.20) < F table 5% (2.87), this indicates
that the number of Lepidoptera order population did
not different significantly based on the combination
of trap types and plant-based attractant types. Based
on Table 2, on the use of the trap type, the highest
Lepidoptera insect population was found in the trap
box model with an average value of 25.33
individuals and this was significantly different from
the modified trap box model with an average of
15.40 individuals. In contrast to the use of attractants
that has a very significant difference, the highest
population of Lepidoptera trapped using jackfruit
pulp with an average value of 57.83, followed by
pineapple pulp 18.50, pineapple peel 14.17, and
jackfruit leather 9, 5 and control 1.83 individuals.
Table 2: The average value of Lepidoptera insect population trapped in two types of traps with four different types of
attractants for 24 days sampling.
Treatment
Without
attractan
t
Pineapple
p
ulp
Pineapple
p
eel
Jackfruit
p
ulp
Jackfruit
leathe
r
Mean
Trap box model 3.00 23.67 19.67 65.67 14.67 25.33
a
Trap box models
Modified
0.67 13.33 8.67 50.00 4.33 15.40
b
Mean 1.83
e
18.50
b
14.17
c
57.83
a
9. 50
d
20.37
Description: The number followed by the same notation on the same line indicates is not different significant according to
Duncan Multiple Range Test at 5% level.
Overall, the contributing factor to the large
population of Lepidoptera is the difference in the
source of the smell from the attractants used, so that
the number of individual insects of the Lepidoptera
order into the trap has a significant difference. From
the side of the trap, the trap with the box model
without hole above is more effective trapping insects
Lepidoptera may be due to insects that have been
entered directly trapped in water detergent for not
finding a way out. Unlike the second model trap that
has hole in the top, so that insects that have entered
into the trap can fly through the hole to save
themselves. While the interaction between trap with
attractant are not significantly different can be
caused by the duration of the sample of insect
collection. A longer time for sample collection is
needed so that more insects can be obtained using a
combination of traps and plant-based attractants in
this study.
4 CONCLUSION
There are 12 species of Lepidoptera insects that are
attracted and trapped in oil palm plantation owned
by PTPN IV Adolina Serdang Bedagai Regency.
The interaction between type of trap and plant-based
attractants did not significantly affect the
Lepidoptera insect population trapped. The type of
trap that effectively traps the Lepidoptera order
insects is a trap box model without hole at the top of
the trap (P
1
) and the most effective plant-based
attractant is derived from the jackfruit pulp (A
3
).
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