Untitled

Abstract

The male attractant pheromone of the scarab beetle Holotrichia reynaudi, an agricultural pest native to southern India, was extracted from abdominal glands of females with hexane and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Field testing of the candidate chemicals, indole, phenol, and anisole, both alone and as binary mixtures, led us to conclude that anisole was the major component of the sex pheromone. Neither male nor female beetles were attracted to indole or phenol on their own. Similarly, when indole and anisole were combined, the attractiveness of the solution did not increase over that obtained with anisole alone. However, combination of phenol and anisole did alter the attractiveness of anisole, with fewer male beetles attracted to the binary mixture than to anisole on its own. The behavior of female beetles was not altered by any of the chemicals tested. Anisole is also the sex pheromone of H. consanguinea, making this the first known example of two melolonthine scarabs sharing the same pheromone.

First Evidence of a Volatile Sex Pheromone in Lady Beetles

“…To date, the organ responsible for sex pheromone production in the multicolored Asian lady beetle has yet to be elucidated. It is very likely that specific abdominal glands are involved in the production process, as observed for other Coleoptera species [41] , [42] and for the German cockroach, Blattela germanica L. [43] . Moreover, previous research on the eleven-spotted lady beetle, Semiadalia undecimnotata Schneider, demonstrated that glands with and without secretory ducts are distrubuted over the head, thorax, and abdomen.…”

Diverse O-methyltransferases catalyze the biosynthesis of floral benzenoids that repel aphids from the flowers of waterlily Nymphaea prolifera

“…Benzenoids including isoeugenol, methyl benzoate, anisole, veratrole, guaiacol, and phenol have been reported to play the role as deterrent to florivores, sex pheromones, fumigants for controlling pests, and aggregation pheromones [ 76 – 81 ]. For example, the anisole and phenol were documented to orientate scarab beetles as sex pheromones [ 80 , 82 , 83 ]. In addition, the anisole, veratrole, and guaiacol could effectively attract the Schistocerca gregaria as aggregation pheromones [ 79 ].…”

Identification and field verification of an aggregation pheromone from the white-spotted flower chafer, Protaetia brevitarsis Lewis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

“…Few reports have documented 4-methylanisole as an insect-derived sex pheromone or aggregation pheromone, but anisole, the homologue of 4-methylanisole, has been identified as the main component of the sex pheromone of the flower chafers Holotrichia reynaudi 3 , 41 and H. consanguinea 42 . In particular, anisole was used to capture a large number of female and male H. consanguinea , leading to aggregation and copulation behavior 6 , 42 .…”