Ventral glands

Table 2 Constituents of secretions of the ventral gland and supplementary sacculi (buccal secretion) of the dwarf hamster, Phodophus sungorus sungorus... 

Holocrine (sebaceous) Ventral gland Mongolian gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus... 

Mongolian gerbil Ventral gland Type of laboratory chow Phenylacetic acid pups prefer odor of gerbils on same diet as their mother... 

Special modified hair in the region of a scent gland can enhance its function. Such scent hairs have been termed osmetrichia (Miiller-Schwarze et ah, 1977 Fig. 3.12). They may be stiff bristles with surface chambers formed by their cuticular scales, as in the tarsal tuft of black-tailed deer (Fig. 3.12a), spoon or spatula like, as in the ventral gland of the Mongolian gerbil Meriories unguiculatus Fig. 3.12d), or a wick formed by a hollow medulla and vacuolated cortical... 

Actinidine (91) is produced by several insects. It was found to be a component of the ants Iridomyrmex discors [267], and I. purpureus [268], Pygidial gland secretions of the ant Tapinoma melanocephalum contained 91, and the alkaloid was repellent to worker ants of this species [269], Actinidine was identified in a defensive secretion of the stick insect Megacrania alpheus [270], and it was present in trace amounts in the defensive secretion of rove beetles [271] and leaf beetles [272]. Ventral glands of Nematus sawfly larvae also contained low levels of 91 [273],... 

Sniffing time of odors of urine, feces and mid-ventral gland secretion of conspecifics of own and opposite sex was examined in a two-stimulus test (Beauchamp, 1973 Johnston, 1981) the order of testing with different odors varied across subjects. There were at least 48 hours between two tests on the same subject. Technically, the procedure consisted of presentation of a pair of stimuli applied on cotton swabs that were placed in glass tubes (internal diameter 0.5 cm.) at a depth of 0.5 cm. from the open end. A pair of tubes, 4 cm apart, were inserted approximately 1 cm. into the cage through the wire lid. A new pair of glass tubes was used for each presentation. 

For the collection of urine we used small metabolic cages. Urine was collected several hours before the experiments and stored at room temperature (18—20 C) it was usually used within 3 hours. For presentation, 0.1 ml of prepared sample (we mixed all undiluted urine volume from 3 donors) was applied to cotton swabs. The feces were collected directly after excretion. For presentation we used 2—3 fecal boli of different donors. Mid-ventral gland secretion was collected by rubbing the gland directly with water soaked cotton swabs. Three swabs contaminated with secretion (about 1—2 mg from each donor) were put in 1 ml of cold water for mixing of individual odors. For presentation 0.1 ml of prepared sample was applied to a clean cotton swab. 

Males of the desert hamster R roborovskii) showed a significant (p<0.05) preference for own-sex mid-ventral gland odor only in summer. 

Table 2. Mean (SE) number of seconds spent sniffing by P. roborovskii and P. sungorus males exposed to three different odors from conspecific males in winter. The odors were urine, mid-ventral gland secretion, and feces...

Kumari, S., and Prakash, I., 1983, The mid-ventral gland of the Indian gerbil Tatera and soft-furred field rat, Rattus meltada, Acta Theriol., 28 425. 

Other relatively simple macrolides synthesized by Fiirstner et al. are recifeiolide (96) - a musk fragrance enhancer isolated from Cephalosporium recifei (Equation 1, Scheme 5.22) [47] exaltolide (99) [48] - a musk odorant perfume isolated from Archangelica officinalis, which was the first macrolactone to be prepared by RCM (Equation 2, Scheme 5.22) and muscopyridine (102) (Equation 3, Scheme 5.22) [49], which is present in the secretion of the ventral glands of male musk deer. 

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