Miklós Tóth

Applied Chemical Ecology Award

Miklós Tóth graduated in 1974 from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, with the diploma for secondary school teachers (biology-chemistry). He got his MSc at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (1981), and he defended his University Doctoral Thesis at the Horticultural University, Budapest, Hungary (1981). He is a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
His goal has always been to discover and develop lures and traps which can be used by farmers to detect and monitor pest insects. He participated in the identification of pheromone components of several dozens of moth spp. (Lyonetidae, Geometridae, Nepticulidae, Arctiidae, etc.).
Efficient trap-bait combinations developed through his research are now available for all nine economically important European click beetle pests (Agriotes spp.), for two sugar-beet weevils and 6 cetoniin and 3 rutelin scarab pests.
A ternary feeding attractant lure has been optimized for the beneficial Chrysoperla lacewings, attracting both females and males. Lacewing females arriving to the lure laid their eggs in the locality and the larvae hatching would predate on the aphids. By combining mechanical and chemical stimuli, the CSALOMON® CHR egg collector sheets were developed.
He coauthored the Pherolist (a database of pheromone structures of Lepidoptera), which after being published in booklet form in 1986 was transformed into an internet database. The Pherolist was a predecessor of Ashraf El-Sayed’s fantastic Pherobase database.
Bringing his scientific achievements through the innovation chain to application he established with colleagues the CSALOMON® Trap Family (from 1993 – present, www.csalomontraps.com).