Abstract
Male neotropical orchid bees (Euglossini) collect volatile chemicals from their environment, store them in tibial pouches, and later expose their “perfumes” during a courtship display. Here, we showed that enantiomeric selectivity plays an important role in the choice of volatiles by male Euglossa cyanura in southern Mexico, and that behavioral selectivity is linked to antennal sensitivity. In field bioassays with equal concentrations of (+)-ipsdienol, (−)-ipsdienol, and racemate, males preferred the (−)-isomer to the racemate, while neglecting the (+)-isomer. Correspondingly, antennae of male E. cyanura showed larger electroantennographic responses to the (−)-isomer than to the (+)-isomer. In comparison, antennae of male Euglossa mixta, which are not attracted to any form of ipsdienol, showed lower electroantennographic responses to (−)-ipsdienol than did antennae of E. cyanura, and also did not differ in sensitivity with respect to the (+)- or (−)-isomers. We suggest that (−)-ipsdienol is an important component of perfume signals in male E. cyanura, which have undergone selection in favor of increased antennal sensitivity to that enantiomer.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Rosamond Coates and the staff of the Los Tuxtlas Biological station for their hospitality, as well as technical and advisory support. Ricardo Ayala kindly provided a collecting permit for euglossine specimens in Mexico. Many thanks also to Klaus Lunau and the Sensory Ecology group at the University of Düsseldorf. Supported by the German Science Foundation (EL 249/3).
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Schorkopf, D.L.P., Mitko, L. & Eltz, T. Enantioselective Preference and High Antennal Sensitivity for (−)-Ipsdienol in Scent-Collecting Male Orchid Bees, Euglossa cyanura . J Chem Ecol 37, 953–960 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-0010-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-011-0010-9