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Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids Mediate Host-Plant Recognition by Ovipositing Females of an Old World Danaid Butterfly, Idea leuconoe

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Abstract

A giant danaid butterfly, Idea leuconoe, specializes on apocynaceous plants such as Parsonsia laevigata, which has been reported to contain pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Females of I. leuconoe deposited eggs in response to methanolic extract of P. laevigata, and subsequent bioassay-guided fractionation of the extract revealed that phytochemicals crucial for host recognition by ovipositing females are Parsonsia-specific macrocyclic pyrrolizidine alkaloids including parsonsianine, parsonsianidine, and 17-methylparsonsianidine. Parsonine, another P. laevigata pyrrolizidine component with a keto-dihydropyrrolizine moiety that is closely related in structure to male pheromones of the butterfly, and several nonhost pyrrolizidine alkaloids were entirely inactive. We interpret these data as strong evidence for an ancestral association through herbivory between danaid butterflies and pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Study of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, 739, Japan

    Keiichi Honda & Nanao Hayashi

  2. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Fukuoka University, Jonan-ku, Fukuoka, 814-80, Japan

    Fumiko Abe & Tatsuo Yamauchi

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  1. Keiichi Honda
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  2. Nanao Hayashi
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  3. Fumiko Abe
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  4. Tatsuo Yamauchi
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Honda, K., Hayashi, N., Abe, F. et al. Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids Mediate Host-Plant Recognition by Ovipositing Females of an Old World Danaid Butterfly, Idea leuconoe . J Chem Ecol 23, 1703–1713 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOEC.0000006445.61545.82

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