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Female sex pheromone and male behavioral responses of the bombycid moth Trilocha varians: comparison with those of the domesticated silkmoth Bombyx mori

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Abstract

Analysis of female sex pheromone components and subsequent field trap experiments demonstrated that the bombycid moth Trilocha varians uses a mixture of (E,Z)-10,12-hexadecadienal (bombykal) and (E,Z)-10,12-hexadecadienyl acetate (bombykyl acetate) as a sex pheromone. Both of these components are derivatives of (E,Z)-10,12-hexadecadienol (bombykol), the sex pheromone of the domesticated silkmoth Bombyx mori. This finding prompted us to compare the antennal and behavioral responses of T. varians and B. mori to bombykol, bombykal, and bombykyl acetate in detail. The antennae of T. varians males responded to bombykal and bombykyl acetate but not to bombykol, and males were attracted only when lures contained both bombykal and bombykyl acetate. In contrast, the antennae of B. mori males responded to all the three components. Behavioral analysis showed that B. mori males responded to neither bombykal nor bombykyl acetate. Meanwhile, the wing fluttering response of B. mori males to bombykol was strongly inhibited by bombykal and bombykyl acetate, thereby indicating that bombykal and bombykyl acetate act as behavioral antagonists for B. mori males. T. varians would serve as a reference species for B. mori in future investigations into the molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of sex pheromone communication systems in bombycid moths.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their invaluable suggestions, which were helpful in improving our manuscript. We thank M.R. Goldsmith for critical reading of an earlier version of our manuscript, K. Ueda and Y. Kishida for their valuable suggestions, S. Matsuyama, S. Namiki, and R. Kanzaki for providing the bombykol standard, and H. Yamashita, Y. Irino, M. Takamine, T. Kiuchi, and K. Mita for assisting with field experiments. We also thank Yusei Ishikawa, the Institute for Sustainable Agro-ecosystem Services of the University of Tokyo, for providing agrochemical-free leaves of F. microcarpa and F. superba. This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 22128004 to T.S., S.K., and T.D., No. 21248006 to T.S. and T.D., and No. 19208005 to Y.I.) from MEXT/JSPS, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Yayoi 1-1-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan

    Takaaki Daimon, Takeshi Fujii, Tsuguru Fujii, Susumu Katsuma, Yukio Ishikawa & Toru Shimada

  2. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Masaya Yago

  3. Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, 88, Ting Chou Rd., Sec4, Taipei, 116, Taiwan

    Yu-Feng Hsu

  4. Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, 903-0213, Japan

    Yumiko Nakajima

  5. National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Owashi 1-2, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8634, Japan

    Takaaki Daimon

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  1. Takaaki Daimon
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  2. Takeshi Fujii
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  3. Masaya Yago
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  4. Yu-Feng Hsu
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  5. Yumiko Nakajima
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  6. Tsuguru Fujii
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  7. Susumu Katsuma
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  8. Yukio Ishikawa
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  9. Toru Shimada
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Correspondence to Takaaki Daimon.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

Takaaki Daimon and Takeshi Fujii contributed equally to this work.

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Daimon, T., Fujii, T., Yago, M. et al. Female sex pheromone and male behavioral responses of the bombycid moth Trilocha varians: comparison with those of the domesticated silkmoth Bombyx mori . Naturwissenschaften 99, 207–215 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0887-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-012-0887-3

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