title: Identification of female sex pheromone in alfalfa blotch leafminer,Agromyza frontella (Rondani)(Diptera: Agromyzidae).
abstract: Gas chroinatography of hexane extracts of 3-day-old virgin A.frontella adults revealed a branched saturated hydrocarbon present only in females. This compound was isolated by argentation chromotography and preparative GC, identified by GC and GC-MS as 3,7-dimethylnonadecane, and subsequently synthesized. Three-day-old virgin females contained 54.1 ± 3.5 ng (± SEM;N = 48) of 3,7-dimethylnonadecane. Male cadavers do not elicit male courtship behavior, but when treated with ∼ 18 ng of 3,7-dimethylnonadecane they were as attractive as cadavers of 3-day-old virgin females. Black cotton knots were less attractive than male cadavers when treated with 3,7-dimethylnonadecane, but all bioassays indicated that this compound is an important semiochemical modulating male mating behavior.
authors.affiliation: Département de biologie, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Quebec, P. Q., Canada.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Carriére
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: McNeil
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Underbill