The role of cuticular chemicals in mating behavior and their chemical components were studied in two sympatric flower-visiting longicorn beetles, Pidonia grallatrix and P. takechii. Mating experiments revealed that female cuticular chemicals elicit male mating behavior and that males can discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific females on the basis of contact chemicals. GC-MS analyses of whole-body extracts in the two species and both sexes determined that extracts contained a series of hydrocarbons including n-alkanes, n-alkenes, and methylalkanes. The relative abundance of some hydrocarbons differed between species and sexes, and canonical discriminant analysis showed discrimination of species and sex could be made unambiguously with several compounds. These results imply that the difference in cuticular hydrocarbons facilitates the pre-mating isolation of sympatric Pidonia species.
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1 January 2007
The Role of Cuticular Hydrocarbons in Mating and Conspecific Recognition in the Closely Related Longicorn Beetles Pidonia grallatrix and P. takechii
Taketo Tanigaki,
Ryohei Yamaoka,
Teiji Sota
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coexistence
cuticular hydrocarbons
longicorn beetles
mating behavior
Pidonia
sex pheromones