Canadian Forest Service Publications
A contact sex pheromone component of the emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) 2009. Silk, P.J.; Ryall, K.L.; Lyons, D.B.; Sweeney, J.D.; Wu, J. Naturwissenschaften 96: 601-608.
Year: 2009
Issued by: Great Lakes Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 29363
Language: English
Availability: PDF (request by e-mail)
Abstract
Analyses of the elytral hydrocarbons from male and female emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, that were freshly emerged vs. sexually mature (>10 days ol) revealed a female-specific compound, 9 methyl-pentacosane (9-MeC25), only present in sesually mature females. This material was synthesized by the Wittig reaction of 2-decanone with (n-hexadecyl)-triphenylphosphonium bromide followed by catalytic reduction to yield racemic 9-Me C25, which mathced the natural compound by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (retention thime and EI mass spectrum). In field bioassays with freeze-killed sexually mature A. planipennis females, feral males spent significantly more time in contact and attempting copulation with unwashed females than with females that had been washed in n-hexane to remove the cuticular lipids. Hexane-washed females to which 9-Me-C25 had been reapplied elicited similar contact time and percentage of time attempting copulation as unwashed females, indicating that 9-methyl-pentacosane is a contact sex pheromone component of A. plaipennis. This is the first contact sex pheromone identified in the Buprestidae.