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Pheromones in white pine cone beetle,Conophthorus coniperda (schwarz) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

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Abstract

Female white pine cone beetles,Conophthorus coniperda, attacking second-year cones of eastern white pine,Pinus strobus L., produced a sex-specific pheromone that attracted conspecific males in laboratory bioassays and to field traps. Beetle response was enhanced by host monoterpenes. The female-produced compound was identified in volatiles collected on Porapak Q and in hindgut extracts as (+)-trans-pityol, (2R,5S)-(+)-2-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-5-methyltetrahydrofuran. Males and females produced and released the (E)-(-)-spiroacetal, (5S,7S)-(-)-7-methyl-1,6-dioxaspiro[4.5]decane, which was not an attractant for either sex, but acted as a repellent for males. Porapak Q-trapped volatiles from both sexes contained (+)-trans-pinocarveol and (-)-myrtenol. In addition, hindgut extracts of females containedtrans-verbenol, while males had pinocarvone and verbenone. Work in Georgia and Canada confirmed that the same isomers of pityol and spiroacetal are present in two distinct and widely separated populations ofC. coniperda.

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Author notes

  1. Göran Birgersson

    Present address: Chemical Ecology, Göteborg University, S-413 20, Göteborg, Sweden

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, 30602, Athens, Georgia

    Göran Birgersson, Mark J. Dalusky, Karl E. Espelie & C. Wayne Berisford

  2. Forestry Sciences Laboratory, USDA Forest Service, Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, 30602, Athens, Georgia

    Gary L. Debarr

  3. Canadian Forest Service, Forest Pest Management Institute, Box 490, P6A 5M7, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada

    Peter de Groot

  4. Centre for Pest Management, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, V5A 1S6, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Peter de Groot & John H. Borden

  5. Department of Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, V5A 1S6, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Harold D. Pierce Jr.

  6. Department of Organic Chemistry, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 6, D-20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Holger Meyer & Wittko Francke

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  1. Göran Birgersson
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Birgersson, G., Debarr, G.L., de Groot, P. et al. Pheromones in white pine cone beetle,Conophthorus coniperda (schwarz) (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). J Chem Ecol 21, 143–167 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02036648

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