A Tetraene Aldehyde as the Major Sex Pheromone Component of the Promethea Moth (Callosamia promethea (Drury))

Abstract

The promethea moth Callosamia promethea is one of three species of silkmoths from the genus Callosamia that occur in North America. Cross attraction of males to heterospecific calling females has been observed in the field, and hybrid progeny have been produced by pairing heterospecifics in captivity. These observations suggest that all three species share or have considerable overlap in the sex attractant pheromones produced by females, so that other prezygotic isolating mechanisms, such as diel differences in reproductive activity, limit hybridization in the field. Coupled gas chromatography-electroantennogram detection and gas chromatography- mass-spectrometry analyses of extracts of volatiles collected from female promethea moths supported the identification of (4E,6E,11Z,13Z)-hexadeca-4,6,11,13-tetraenal [(4E,6E,11Z,13Z)-16:Ald] as the compound in extracts that elicited the largest responses from antennae of males. The identification was confirmed by non-selective synthesis of several isomers as analytical standards, and stereoselective synthesis of (4E,6E,11Z,13Z)-16:Ald for testing in field trials. Male moths were strongly attracted to synthetic (4E,6E,11Z,13Z)-16:Ald, suggesting that this compound is the major and possibly the only component of the sex pheromone of these large saturniid moths. Based on the cross-attraction of heterospecifics, it is likely that this is also a major pheromone component of the other two North American Callosamia species as well.

Pheromones and Other Semiochemicals for Monitoring Rare and Endangered Species

“…Almost all published pheromones of explicit conservation interest have been female-produced sex attractant pheromones, including those of the Spanish moon moth Graellsia isabellae (Millar et al 2010) and other moths (Gago et al 2013; Yan et al 2015), the rust red click beetle Elater ferrugineus (Svensson et al 2012; Tolasch et al 2007) and related species (Konig et al 2016; Tolasch et al 2013), and longhorn beetles in the genera Prionus (Barbour et al 2011), Tragosoma (Ray et al 2012), and Desmocerus (Ray et al 2014). The only exception so far is the male-produced sex-aggregation pheromones of scarab beetles in the genus Osmoderma (Larsson et al 2003; Svensson et al 2009; Zauli et al 2016).…”

“…The first insect pheromone identified specifically as a tool for conservation was ( R )-γ-decalactone, the sex or aggregation pheromone of the threatened scarab beetle Osmoderma eremita (Larsson et al 2003). Since then, several other pheromones have been identified with explicit or implicit applicability for insect conservation (Barbour et al 2011; Gago et al 2013; Konig et al 2016; Millar et al 2010; Ray et al 2012, 2014; Tolasch et al 2007, 2013; Yan et al 2015), with additional semiochemicals being the target of ongoing studies (Harvey et al 2011). …”

Latest Developments in Insect Sex Pheromone Research and Its Application in Agricultural Pest Management

“…Sex pheromones comprise sex attractant pheromones, which induce upwind oriented movements to the conspecific individual, and courtship pheromones, which elicit a variety of close-range responses in the insect partner [ 12 , 13 ]. Since the first pheromone discovery, the rapid progress of methodologies developed to identify new pheromones, mainly GC, GC-MS, NMR, electrophysiological techniques [electroantennography (EAG), gas chromatography coupled to electroantennography (GC-EAD), single sensillum recordings (SSR), and coupled GC-SSR], have allowed the identification of thousands of compounds as insect sex pheromones [ 14 ] ( Table 2 contains new sex pheromones and sex pheromone components recently identified from insect pests in the period 2010–2020 and the corresponding references [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]). In addition, an interdisciplinary approach involving advances in analytical chemistry, neurophysiology, genetics, and molecular biology have improved our understanding of insect chemical communication and behavior to the level of discrete neural circuits [ 8 ].…”

Thoracic scales of moths as a stealth coating against bat biosonar

“…The reasonable overall agreement suggests that moth scales can be approximated as fibrous porous absorbers, but we observe one relevant deviation: for incidence angles of 20°(close to normal) and low ultrasonic frequencies (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), the measured α is always substantially higher than expected for a fibrous porous absorber (difference to measurement for model 'set 1': 0.50-0.54; 'set 2': 0.54-0.57; 'set 3': 0.33-0.38). This shows that the absorption of moth scales for near normal incidence and high wavelength/ thickness ratios is substantially better than expected for a conventional fibrous porous absorber-a remarkable and desirable absorber feature that is not fully understood to date.…”