Abstract
Epicuticular lipids are contact cues in intraspecific chemical communication in insects, both for aggregation and sexual behavior. Triatomine bugs are vectors of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease. In Triatoma infestans, the major epicuticular lipids are hydrocarbons, fatty alcohols, and free and esterified fatty acids. Previously, we found that epicuticular lipid extracts, or selected fatty acid components, trigger aggregation and arrestment behavior in this bug. Using headspace solid phase microextraction, we found no sexual dimorphism in epicuticular hydrocarbons, but found female-specific fatty alcohols (eicosanol and docosanol). The role of epicuticular lipids in T. infestans copulation behavior was tested by observing male responses to live or various treatments of freeze-killed females. We report that hexane-soluble contact cues on females trigger copulation by males. Freeze-killed intact females were attractive to males, but no response was observed when males were exposed to hexane-washed females. Responses were partially recovered when epicuticular extract was applied to the dorsal surface of dead, hexane-washed females. One female equivalent of docosanol, evoked similar responses.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Raúl Stariolo for providing insects, and Facundo Bozzolo and Cecilia Fuse for rearing insects. The research was supported in part by grants from the Agencia Nacional para la Promocion de la Ciencia y Tecnología, Argentina (PICT 2004–25479 and PICT 2007–01503) to MPJ. Both MPJ and GMCF are members of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Researcher’s Career.
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Luciana M. Cocchiararo-Bastias and Sergio J. Mijailovsky contributed equally to this work.
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Cocchiararo-Bastias, L.M., Mijailovsky, S.J., Calderon-Fernández, G.M. et al. Epicuticle Lipids Mediate Mate Recognition in Triatoma infestans . J Chem Ecol 37, 246–252 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9927-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-9927-2
Key Words
- Contact sex pheromone
- Mating behavior
- Fatty alcohols
- Hydrocarbons
- Chagas disease vectors
- Hemiptera
- Reduviidae