Sex Pheromone of Queens of the Slave-Making Ant, Polyergus breviceps

The sex attractant pheromone produced in mandibular glands of queens of the slave-making ant Polyergus breviceps has been identified as a blend of methyl 6-methylsalicylate and 3-ethyl-4-methylpentanol. In field trials, each compound alone was completely unattractive to males, whereas blends of the two compounds attracted hundreds of males within a couple of hours.

...Similar results have been demonstrated for the American species P. breviceps (Topoff and Greenberg, 1988), and the role of methyl 6-methylsalicylate as a component of the female sex pheromone has been demonstrated in both species (Greenberg et al., 2004, 2007; Castracani et al., 2005)...
...In particular, P. breviceps males are strongly attracted by a highly synergistic, 7 : 1 blend of methyl 6-methylsalicylate with 3-ethyl-4-methylpentanol (Greenberg et al., 2004)...
...The two compounds were synthesized as previously described (Greenberg et al., 2004)...
...According to the numbering of Table 1, chemicals 1 and 4 were synthesized as previously described (Greenberg et al., 2004), whereas chemicals 2, 3, 7, 9, and 10 were obtained from Aldrich Chemical Co. A sample of decyl butyrate 6 was synthesised by heating overnight at 608C a mixture of decanol (1.6 g), butyric acid (1.4 g) (both from Aldrich Chemical), and 0.2 g of phosphosulphuric acid (Carlo Erba)...
...Ethyl 6methylsalicylate was synthesized from 2-hydroxy-6-methylbenzoic acid (Greenberg et al., 2004) by refluxing the acid (0.31 g, 2 mmol) in a mixture of 3 ml EtOH and 0.5 ml conc...
...Five of the remaining chemicals were deemed to be possible components of the P. rufescens sex pheromone, and among them 3-ethyl- 4-methylpentanol seemed to be the most probable because it was the most abundant of the five, and its biological role had been demonstrated in the congeneric American species P. breviceps (Greenberg et al., 2004, 2007)...
...In contrast, 3-ethyl-4methylpentanol has been reported from only a few ant species (Francke et al., 1985; do Nascimento et al., 1993; Greenberg et al., 2004, 2007)...
...However, because of the small quantities in which it is present and its high volatility, this chemical was more difficult to find in extracts than methyl 6-methylsalicylate (e.g., Castracani et al., 2003; Greenberg et al., 2004)...
...Our results showing that binary blends consisting of 75 – 98 % methyl 6-methylsalicylate with 3-ethyl-4-methylpentanol were the most effective attractants for P. rufescens males, were in accord with those reported for P. breviceps (Greenberg et al., 2004, 2007), although the ratio of components may be more heavily biased towards methyl 6-methylsalicylate in P. rufescens...

Keywords (2)

Sex Pheromone of Queens of the Slave-Making Ant, Polyergus breviceps,10.1023/B:JOEC.0000030300.11787.01,Journal of Chemical Ecology,Les Greenberg,Ali

Citation Context (3)

C. Castracani, et al. Chemical communication in mating behaviour of the slave-making ant Po...

Cristina Castracani, et al. Behavioral Bioassays Testing the Methyl 6-Methylsalicylate as a Compon...

Francisca Ruano, et al. Mating behaviour in a slave-making ant, Rossomyrmex minuchae (Hymenopt...

References (2)

The exocrine secretions of the jumping ant Harpegnathos saltator (Citations: 22)

Slave-Making Queens (Citations: 6)

Citations (9)

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MECHANISMS OF REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN AN ANT SPECIES OF HYBRID ORIGIN AND ONE OF ITS PARENTS (Citations: 5)

Chemical communication in mating behaviour of the slave-making ant Polyergus rufescens (Hymenoptera, Formicidae): 3-ethyl-4-methylpentanol as a critical component of the queen sex pheromone (Citations: 2)


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