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Tarsi of Male Heliothine Moths Contain Aldehydes and Butyrate Esters as Potential Pheromone Components

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Abstract

The Noctuidae are one of the most speciose moth families and include the genera Helicoverpa and Heliothis. Females use (Z)-11-hexadecenal as the major component of their sex pheromones except for Helicoverpa assulta and Helicoverpa gelotopoeon, both of which utilize (Z)-9-hexadecenal. The minor compounds found in heliothine sex pheromone glands vary with species, but hexadecanal has been found in the pheromone gland of almost all heliothine females so far investigated. In this study, we found a large amount (0.5–1.5 μg) of hexadecanal and octadecanal on the legs of males of four heliothine species, Helicoverpa zea, Helicoverpa armigera, H. assulta, and Heliothis virescens. The hexadecanal was found on and released from the tarsi, and was in much lower levels or not detected on the remaining parts of the leg (tibia, femur, trochanter, and coxa). Lower amounts (0.05–0.5 μg) of hexadecanal were found on female tarsi. This is the first known sex pheromone compound to be identified from the legs of nocturnal moths. Large amounts of butyrate esters (about 16 μg) also were found on tarsi of males with lower amounts on female tarsi. Males deposited the butyrate esters while walking on a glass surface. Decapitation did not reduce the levels of hexadecanal on the tarsi of H. zea males, indicating that hexadecanal production is not under the same neuroendocrine regulation system as the production of female sex pheromone. Based on electroantennogram studies, female antennae had a relatively high response to hexadecanal compared to male antennae. We consider the possible role of aldehydes and butyrate esters as courtship signals in heliothine moths.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the late Dr. Peter Teal for providing 16:Ald, Anne Barrington for supplying H. armigera for the EAG study, and Drs. CY Yang and JK Jung for technical help. A portion of this study was funded by Research Grant IS-4722-14 from BARD, the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund to RJ.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS, 3420 NW Orchard Avenue, Corvallis, OR, 97330, USA

    Man-Yeon Choi

  2. Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Seung-Joon Ahn

  3. Horticulture and Food Research Institute, Gerald Street, Lincoln, 8152, New Zealand

    Kye-Chung Park

  4. Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, USDA-ARS, Gainesville, FL, 32608, USA

    Robert Vander Meer

  5. Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Ring T. Cardé

  6. Department of Entomology, 434 Science II, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Russell Jurenka

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  1. Man-Yeon Choi
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Correspondence to Russell Jurenka.

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Choi, MY., Ahn, SJ., Park, KC. et al. Tarsi of Male Heliothine Moths Contain Aldehydes and Butyrate Esters as Potential Pheromone Components. J Chem Ecol 42, 425–432 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0701-3

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