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The Isolation and Identification of the Cuticular Sex-Stimulant Pheromone of the Tsetse Glossina Pallidipes Austen (Diptera: Glossinidae)

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Abstract

The sex-stimulant contact pheromone present in the cuticle of female tsetse Glossina pallidipes Austen has been extracted with hexane, separated by preparative gas chromatography and identified by mass spectrometry. The aphrodisiac, consisting of 13,17-dimethylpentatriacontane and 15,19-dimethylpentatriacontane, is present in cuticular extracts of 1-week-old females and, in lower amounts, in teneral females but it is almost absent in males of all ages. Full copulatory responses to hexane-washed dead males treated with the two dimethylpentatriacontane isomers were induced in 10–20-day-old adult male G. pallidipes. The practical uses to which this discovery can now be put—towards the mass-rearing and control of G. pallidipes—are discussed in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), P.O. Box 30772, Nairobi, Kenya

    P. G. McDowell, D. L. Whitehead & M. F. B. Chaudhury

  2. ICIPE Muhaka Field Station, P.O. Box 80804, Mombasa, Kenya

    W. F. Snow

Authors
  1. P. G. McDowell
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  2. D. L. Whitehead
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  3. M. F. B. Chaudhury
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  4. W. F. Snow
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McDowell, P.G., Whitehead, D.L., Chaudhury, M.F.B. et al. The Isolation and Identification of the Cuticular Sex-Stimulant Pheromone of the Tsetse Glossina Pallidipes Austen (Diptera: Glossinidae). Int J Trop Insect Sci 2, 181–187 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758400000990

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742758400000990

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