Identification and synthesis of female sex pheromone of oriental beetle, Anomala orientalis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)

• Main Authors: Zhang, Aijun, Facundo, Henry T., Robbins, Paul S., Linn, Charles E., Jr., Villani, Michael G., Roelofs, Wendell L.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1994
• Subjects: Scarabaeidae; Pheromones; Sex recognition (Zoology); Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/4923
• Institution: De La Salle University

Females of the Oriental beetle, Anomala orientalis (Waterhouse), release a sex pheromone composed of a 9:1 blend of (Z)- and (E)-7-tetradecen-2-one. The double-bond position of the pheromone was determined by DMDS derivatization and interpretation of the fragmentation patterns produced by monounsaturated ketones. In a sustained-flight tunnel, males responded by flying toward female beetles and attempting to copulate with them. Both effluvium and whole-body extracts of OB females were analyzed, and the activity was found only in the airborne extracts. Flight-tunnel bioassays also showed that a synthetic 90:10Z/E blend on a rubber septum was attractive and that the responses of males to this blend were equivalent to Z isomer alone, but much better than to the single E isomer.