Abstract
Nymphs of the cercopid Aphrophora cribrata cover themselves with a frothy exudate while ingesting sap from their preferred host plant, the eastern white pine, Pinus strobus. Chemical analyses of froth collected from A. cribrata nymphs revealed an array of metabolites belonging to five chemical classes, including fatty acid-derived alcohols, γ-lactones and a single 1-monoacylglycerol, as well as the polyol pinitol and the polyhydroxyalkanoate, poly-3-hydroxybutyrate. Bioassays showed the natural A. cribata froth, as well as a synthetic mixture comprised of representative compound classes identified therein, to be repellent to ants but largely devoid of topical irritancy in tests with cockroaches.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Thomas Eisner for helping with the bioassays, and for providing, with Maria Eisner, all of the cercopid photographs. We also thank E. Richard Hoebeke for helping with identification of the A. cribrata nymphs. Dr. Frank Schroeder provided guidance for the NMR analyses. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, award #AI02908, Research Corporation award #7813, and a fellowship from Johnson and Johnson.
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del Campo, M.L., King, J.T. & Gronquist, M.R. Defensive and chemical characterization of the froth produced by the cercopid Aphrophora cribrata . Chemoecology 21, 1–8 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-010-0059-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-010-0059-x