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Sensitivity of antennae of male and femaleIps paraconfusus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) to its pheromone and other behavior-modifying chemicals

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Abstract

The antennal sensitivities of both male and femaleIps paraconfusus were found generally to be greatest for conspecific aggregation pheromones (ipsdienol, ipsenol); intermediate for an additional conspecific pheromone (cis-verbenol), an aggregation synergist (2-phenylethanol), and pheromones/allomones of sympatric species (trans-verbenol, verbenone, and frontalin); and lowest for both host terpenes (alpha-pinene and myrcene) and other bark beetle-produced odorants (exo-brevicomin and linalool). Of the enantiomeric compounds tested, antennae of both sexes did not differ in sensitivity between thetrans-verbenol enantiomers at low dosage levels; but at higher dosages, the conspecific-produced enantiomer, (1R,4S,5R)-(+)-trans-verbenol, elicited larger mean EAG responses than its antipode, (1S,4R, 5S)-(−)-trans-verbenol. At the mid-dosage range, female antennae tended to be slightly more responsive to (S)-(−)-verbenone than to (R)-(+)-verbenone, while male antennae were equally responsive to stimulations by either verbenone enantiomer. In field bioassays there was a large and significant reduction in trap catches ofI. paraconfusus on traps where the (S)-(−)- or (R)-(+)-enantiomers of verbenone were evaporated beside logs containing boring conspecific males. Only when the (S)-(−)-enantiomer of verbenone was evaporated beside logs containing boring males did the sex ratio ofI. paraconfusus trapped shift from female-dominated to male-dominated attraction. Thus both physiological and behavioral data suggest a differential chiral sensitivity of female beetles for the verbenone enantiomers. The relative sensitivities between different chiral compounds derived from one or the other of the common precursoral host terpenes, (S)-(−)- and (R)-(+)alpha-pinene or myrcene, are discussed.

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  1. D. M. Light

    Present address: Biocommunications Chemistry Research Unit, U.S.D.A., A.R.S., Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan Street, 94710, Berkeley, California

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  1. Department of Entomology, University of California, 95616, Davis, California

    D. M. Light

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This paper is based in part upon a dissertation submitted to the University of California, Davis, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD in entomology.

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Light, D.M. Sensitivity of antennae of male and femaleIps paraconfusus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) to its pheromone and other behavior-modifying chemicals. J Chem Ecol 9, 585–606 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990411

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