Pheromones collection

Analysis of the volatile pheromone collected from calling female H. virescens is not yet complete. However, preliminary results indicate that 14 A1 and Z9-14 A1 are emitted in greater quantities, relative to Zll-16 A1, than are present in the gland. Thus our data suggest that the true emitted pheromone of H. virescens females may consist predominantly of 14 A1, Z9-14 A1, 16 A1, and Z11-16 A1. 

Pheromone collections were also made as described for C. hemipterus (5). Tenax porous polymer was used to trap the volatiles emitted from groups of beetles feeding on pinto-bean diet. Parallel samples were derived from males, from females, and also from the diet medium alone, for later chromatographic and bioassay comparisons. Counts of beetles were kept so that the pheromone production could be quantified in terms of beetle-days. (A beetle-day is the average amount of pheromone collected from one beetle in one day). Beetles were separated by sex and set up for pheromone collection within a... 

The extract from males was fractionated on silica gel to separate components by polarity, as described previously (5). The solvents and bioassay activities of the fractions are presented in Table I. The hexane fraction was the only one that showed clear activity, suggesting that the pheromone of C. lugubris was a hydrocarbon. The slight activity of the most polar fraction appears to have been due to the artificial diet on which the insects were fed during pheromone collection. 

Apis mellifera Q-MG Delays worker foraging ontogeny reduces tbeir hemolymph JH titre (2E)-9-Oxodec-2-enoic acid 52, (2 E)-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid (71% (R)-(-)) 53, methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate 54, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol 55 (collectively called queen mandibular pheromone QMP ) [138]... 

Our recent NSF-funded collaboration with Bets has yielded, for example, the first statistically significant evidence that male African elephants can distinguish conspecific female urine collected at the time of ovulation from urine obtained at the mid-luteal time of the estrous cycle (Bagley, Goodwin, Rasmussen and Schulte 2006). Additionally, we have published the first report of insect pheromones in the urine of female African elephants (Goodwin, Eggert, House, Weddell, Schulte and Rasmussen 2006). These findings bode well for the eventual discovery of the first African elephant pheromones. 

To sum up, 2MB2 emitted in milk by female rabbits meets the five criteria proposed by Beauchamp et al. (1976) to define a pheromone in the case of mammals. As rabbit milk releases neonatal behavior after full ejection, but not when collected from the mammary tract below the nipples (from the tubes or alveolae), 2MB2 is probably produced de novo in the distal part of the mammary apparatus (Moncomble, Coureaud, Quennedey, Langlois, Perrier, Brossut and Schaal 2005). Accordingly, the active compound carried in milk was named mammary pheromone (MP). 

Identification of compounds in volatiles collected from hunting M. cornigera revealed three common components of moth sex pheromone blends (Z)-9-tetradecenal, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate, and (Z)-ll-hexade-cenal [while there was insufficient material for mass spectrometry, gas chromatographic retention time evidence suggests that (Z)-ll-hexadece-... 

Most of the methods that have been used to collect or extract pheromones from true bugs are analogous to methods used with insects in general, and will be summarized here only briefly. The interested reader is referred to several reviews [4,12-14]. First, whole insects or body sections have been soaked in solvent (e.g., N. viridula [15] Campylomma verbasci [16]). However, the value of whole body extracts is questionable because of their complexity, and the bulk of the compounds obtained may be unrelated to the pheromone components, hampering further investigation of the actual pheromone. 

Structure elucidation of the female-produced sex pheromones of Trogo-derma spp. has a rather confused history. Extracts of females of T. inclusum were shown to contain (Z)-14-methyl-8-hexadecenol and the methyl ester of the respective carboxylic acid [215]. The corresponding compounds showing (E)-configuration were shown to be present and behaviourally active in T. inclusum [216]. Finally, investigations of head space collections, obtained with live females, revealed the presence of 14-methyl-8-hexadecenal, an aldehyde... 

Many examples of pheromone action are collected in two important books Tristram Wyatt s Pheromones and Animal Behavior and William Agosta s Chemical Communication The examples that follow here are taken from these books. They may be consulted both for additional details and further examples of pheromones. 

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Martha McClintock noted that her female dormmates tended to synchronize their menstrual cycles over time. When she pointed this out to a group of scientists at a pheromone conference, she was challenged to study the phenomenon scientifically if she wanted to be believed. She took up the challenge, recruited 135 women from her dorm, and collected the data on dates of onset of menstrual cycles. The data strongly supported her informal observations and she wrote up the results of her study as her senior thesis. 

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