Coconut rhinoceros beetle

Two related scarab species produce ethyl 4-methyloctanoate 78 (Scheme 8) as an aggregation pheromone the African rhinoceros beetle Oryctes monoceros [170] and the coconut rhinoceros beetle Oryctes rhinoceros [171, 172]. The latter is readily attracted to the racemate. Its secretion was found to contain the free acid as well as ethyl 4-methylheptanoate [ 171 ]. Similarly to other cases, the attractiveness of ethyl 4-methyloctanoate is enhanced by host compounds, i.e. coconut wood [173]. The date palm fruit stalk borer, Oryctes elegans, uses 4-methyloctanoic acid as a male produced pheromone [174]. Structurally... 

Some esters of long-chain saturated fatty acids are aggregation pheromone beetles. The ethanol-ester of 4-methyloctanoic acid is, for instance, a commercialized aggregation pheromone (Oryctalure ) used to control the coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros) (Morin et al., 1996). American palm weevil (Rhynchphorus palmarum) is attracted by the aggregation pheromone 6-methyl-2-hepten-4-ol. The pheromone has been tried for control of the weevil and is sold under the names Rhyncopherol and Rhynkolure . 

Ishibashi, J., Saido-Sakanaka, H., Yang, J., Sagisaka, A., Yamakawa, M. Purification, cDNA cloning and modification of a defen-sin from the coconut rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros. Eur. J. Biochem. 1999, 266, 616-623... 

H. Hemmi, J. Ishibashi, T. Tomie, and M. Yamakawa, Structural basis for new pattern of conserved amino acid residues related to chitin-binding in the antifungal peptide from the coconut rhinoceros beetle Oryctes rhinoceros, J. Biol. Chem., 278 (2003) 22820-22827. 

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