Journal of Chemical Ecology (1997) 23, 231-245

Aijun Zhang, Paul S. Robbins, Walter S. Leal, Charles E. Linn Jr., Michael G. Villani and Wendell L. Roelofs (1997)
Essential amino acid methyl esters: major sex pheromone components of the cranberry white grub, Phyllophaga anxia (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)
Journal of Chemical Ecology 23 (1), 231-245
Abstract: Chiral capillary gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) analysis indicates that L-valine and L-isoleucine methyl esters are the major sex pheromone components released by females of the cranberry white grub, Phyllophaga anxia (LeConte). The GC retention times and GC-mass spectrometry of the two natural compounds were identical to those of authentic standards. Of five reproducible GC-EAD active components revealed with female volatiles, the L-valine and L-isoleucine methyl esters elicited the strongest male antennal responses. The ratio of L-valine and L-isoleucine methyl esters was determined to be 3:1 by analysis of pheromone gland extracts. Chirality was shown to be critical by GC-EAD, since only the L-form of these amino acid methyl esters elicited an EAD response. In field experiments conducted in Massachusetts, a synthetic 3:1 blend of L-valine and L-isoleucine methyl esters on a rubber septum was attractive to P. anxia males.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Walter Soares Leal, Aijun Zhang, Paul S. Robbins

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
pheromones/attractants/traps

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Phyllophaga anxia		U.S.A. (NE)