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Field Evaluation of Larval Odor and Mixtures of Synthetic Pheromone Components for Attracting Migrating Sea Lampreys in Rivers

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Abstract

The sea lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, is a harmful invader of the Laurentian Great Lakes. The odor emitted by larval lampreys resident to streams attracts migrating adults to high quality spawning habitats. Three components of the larval pheromone have been identified and tested in laboratory settings: petromyzonol sulfate, petromyzosterol disulfate, and petromyzonamine disulfate. Here, we report the first field test of six mixtures of synthetic versions of these pheromone components, and we compare lamprey responses to these with those elicited by the complete larval odor in a natural stream. Exposure to larval odor both increased upstream movement and attracted migrants into the portion of a channel containing the odor. No tested combination of synthetic pheromone components proved similarly attractive. These findings suggest the existence of unknown additional components of the pheromone that await discovery and are likely necessary if the pheromone is to be useful in management of this pest. Further, we hypothesize that the complete pheromone mixture is necessary to attract migrants into spawning habitat at the conclusion of the migration, whereas a partial pheromone may be effective at the transition from lake to stream when natural factors both dilute and alter the ratio of components from that actually emitted by sea lamprey larvae.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. We are grateful to the staff of the Hammond Bay Biological Station, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Marquette Biological Station, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Sea Lamprey Control Centre for providing experimental subjects and access to laboratory facilities. We thank Ed Hessler, Weiming Li, Michael Siefkes, and Sang Seon Yun for insightful discussions and assistance with interpretation of the 1H NMR and HPLC analyses of the synthetic pheromone components. We thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the manuscript. We also thank Rob Katona, Sanjeev Mahabir, Tim St. Pierre, and Adam Thomas for assistance in the field.

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  1. Mark A. Luehring

    Present address: Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission, 72682 Maple Street, Odanah, WI, 54861, USA

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  1. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 480 Wilson Rd., Room 13, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Trevor D. Meckley, C. Michael Wagner & Mark A. Luehring

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  1. Trevor D. Meckley
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Correspondence to C. Michael Wagner.

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Meckley, T.D., Wagner, C.M. & Luehring, M.A. Field Evaluation of Larval Odor and Mixtures of Synthetic Pheromone Components for Attracting Migrating Sea Lampreys in Rivers. J Chem Ecol 38, 1062–1069 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-012-0159-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-012-0159-x

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