Regine Gries

• Simon Fraser University

In evolutionary time, aquatic crustaceans colonized land and faced new terrestrial predators such as spiders and ants. Working with the crustacean woodlouse Porcellio scaber, we tested the hypothesis that the shift from aquatic to terrestrial habitat prompted the evolution of defensive metabolites against terrestrial predators. When attacked by a p...

Sex pheromones mediate mate location in many animal taxa. Widow spider males are attracted to sex pheromones disseminating from female webs. Upon arrival on a web, males court in response to web-borne contact pheromone components. N-3-Methylbutanoyl-O-methylpropanoyl-L-serine methyl ester (1) is the single known, weakly effective, contact pheromone...

Sex pheromones mediate mate location in many animal taxa. Widow spider males are attracted to sex pheromones disseminating from female webs. Upon arrival on a web, males court in response to web-borne contact pheromone components. N -3-Methylbutanoyl- O -methylpropanoyl-L-serine methyl ester ( 1 ) is the single known, weakly effective, contact pher...

Following previous reports that male deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, produce chemical signals that attract conspecific females, we analysed and field-tested sex-attractant semiochemicals (message-bearing chemicals) of male deer mice. Field traps baited with urine- and faeces-soiled bedding of male mice captured adult female, but not male, mice,...

In central Canada, surveys for the three invasive (Palearctic) Agriotes species—A. obscurus, A. lineatus, and A. sputator—commonly collect A. pubescens, a North American native (Nearctic) click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) that generally co-occurs with Nearctic A. mancus. Despite the abundance of A. pubescens on farmland, its life history and po...

Stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.), are blood-feeding ectoparasites of cattle. Host-seeking stable flies respond to various cattle host cues, but a potential role of cattle breath gases [carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4)] and cattle breath volatiles (acetone, isoprene, 2-butanone, 2-propanol, propionic acid, 3-methyl butyric acid, phenol), al...

Ticks spend most of their life inhabiting leaf litter and detritus where they are protected from sun but preyed upon by ants. Ants secrete chemical communication signals to coordinate group tasks such as nest defence. Ticks that avoid ant semiochemicals—as indicators of ant presence—would reduce predation risk by ants. We tested the hypotheses that...

Gravid female stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae), oviposit in many types of organic substrates, including animal feces, but there is limited information as to which factors mediate attraction and oviposition. Here, we (1) tested effects of oviposition site moisture and odor on attraction and oviposition by flies, and (2) sel...

Targeted metabolomics has been widely used in pheromone research but may miss pheromone components in study organisms that produce pheromones in trace amount and/or lack bio-detectors (e.g., antennae) to readily locate them in complex samples. Here, we used non -targeted metabolomics—together with high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectro...

The human skin microbiome reportedly contributes to the attraction of mosquitoes to human hosts. We tested the hypothesis that bovine skin microbes affect the attraction of blood-feeding stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans, to their bovine hosts. Microbes were collected from a calf and adult cow, and subsequently isolated and identified by mass spect...

Foraging ticks reportedly exploit diverse cues to locate their hosts. Here, we tested the hypothesis that host-seeking Western black-legged ticks, Ixodes pacificus, and black-legged ticks, I. scapularis, respond to microbes dwelling in sebaceous gland secretions of white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, the ticks' preferred host. Using sterile...

The wheat wireworm, Agriotes mancus (Coleoptera: Elateridae), is a predominant elaterid pest species in the Nearctic region, with a life history and morphology similar to those of Agriotes obscurus , Agriotes lineatus and Agriotes sputator , three Palearctic pest elaterids invasive in North America. Here, we report the identification and field test...

Bumble bee conservation focuses on supplementing floral resources. Yet, nesting site availability is linked to bumble bee abundance. As a supplement to natural nest sites, nest boxes could be deployed and baited with synthetic lures. As queen bumble bees reportedly establish colonies in abandoned rodent burrows, we hypothesized (1) that queen bumbl...

Female web-building spiders disseminate pheromone from their webs that attracts mate-seeking males and deposit contact pheromone on their webs that induces courtship by males upon arrival. The source of contact and mate attractant pheromone components, and the potential ability of females to adjust their web’s attractiveness, have remained elusive....

Ant colonies have vast and diverse nutritional needs but forager ants have limited mobility to meet these needs. Forager ants would accrue significant energy savings if they were able to sense and orient toward odor plumes of both carbohydrate and protein food sources. Moreover, if worker ants, like other flightless insects, had reduced olfactory a...

Synthetic sex pheromone lures are useful tools to monitor and control populations of adult click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae). However, sex pheromones for Agriotes click beetle species native to North America have yet to be identified. Here we report the identification and field testing of the sex pheromone of Agriotes ferrugineipennis. Headspa...

Four species of Tetramorium pavement ants are known to guide foraging activities of nestmates via trail pheromones secreted from the poison gland of worker ants, but the trail pheromone of T. immigrans is unknown. Our objectives were to (1) determine whether poison gland extract of T. immigrans workers induces trail-following behavior of nestmates,...

Sex pheromones are known for only a few major click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) pests in North America. These pheromones could be used to monitor, as well as control, adult beetles. Our objective was to identify the sex pheromone of female Selatosomus aeripennis destructor (Brown), a predominant elaterid pest species in farmland in the Canadian...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

The cover image is based on the Research Article Cheese and cheese infusions: ecological traps for mosquitoes and spotted wing Drosophila by Daniel AH Peach et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/ps.6603. Image Credit: Sean McCann. The cover image is based on the Research Article Cheese and cheese infusions: ecological traps for mosquitoes and spotted win...

BACKGROUND Harnessing insect ecology for insect control is an innovative concept that seeks to exploit, among others, insect–microbe ecological interactions for improved control of pest insects. Microbe‐produced cheese odour attracts several dipterans, including host‐seeking mosquitoes, but this phenomenon has not been thoroughly explored for mosqu...

Ants select sustained carbohydrate resources, such as aphid honeydew, based on many factors including sugar type, volume and concentration. We tested the hypotheses (H1–H3) that western carpenter ants, Camponotus modoc, seek honeydew excretions from Cinara splendens aphids based solely on the presence of sugar constituents (H1), prefer sugar soluti...

Four species of Limonius wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae), L. californicus, L. canus, L. infuscatus and L. agonus, are serious crop pests in North America. Limoniic acid, (E)-4-ethyloct-4-enoic acid, has been reported as a sex pheromone component of female L. californicus and L. canus, and a sex attractant for male L. infuscatus. In the same stud...

An underlying assumption of optimal foraging models is that animals are behaviorally, morphologically, and physiologically adapted to maximize their net energy intake. Here we explored whether this concept applies to web-building spiders in a multi-trophic context. If a spider were to build her web next to herbivore-fed-on plants that signal the he...

Background There is widespread interkingdom signalling between insects and microbes. For example, microbes found in floral nectar may modify its nutritional composition and produce odorants that alter the floral odor bouquet which may attract insect pollinators. Mosquitoes consume nectar and can pollinate flowers. We identified microbes isolated fr...

Wireworms, the larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), are soil-dwelling insect pests inflicting major economic damage on many types of agricultural crops worldwide. The objective of this work was to identify the female-produced sex pheromones of the Pacific Coast wireworm, Limonius canus LeConte, and the sugarbeet wireworm, L. californic...

We tested the hypothesis that the "ecological trap" phenomenon (a mismatch between a habitat's perceived attractiveness and its actual quality, resulting in a population sink) is exploitable for pest control. We selected mosquitoes as modal organisms, because selection of an oviposition site by adult female mosquitoes in response to its perceived a...

Trypodendron retusum (LeConte) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) females excised from newly attacked trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michaux (Salicaceae), were shown for the first time to produce the aggregation pheromone (+)-lineatin. Coupled gas chromatographic-electroantennographic detection analysis (GC-EAD) disclosed that the antenn...

Mammalian pheromones often linger in the environment and thus are particularly susceptible to interceptive eavesdropping, commonly understood as a one-way dyadic interaction, where prey sense and respond to the scent of a predator. Here, we tested the “counterespionage” hypothesis that predator and prey co-opt each other’s pheromone as a cue to loc...

Formicine ants in distress spray alarm pheromone which typically recruits nestmates for help. Studying the western carpenter ant, Camponotus modoc Wheeler (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), our objectives were to (1) determine the exocrine glands that contain alarm recruitment pheromone, (2) identify the key alarm recruitment pheromone components, and (3)...

Background There is widespread interkingdom signalling between insects and microbes. For example, microbes found in floral nectar may modify its nutritional composition and produce odorants that alter the floral odor bouquet which may attract insect pollinators. Mosquitoes consume nectar and can pollinate flowers. We identified microbes isolated fr...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.

Porapak Q-captured volatiles from both sexes of Trypodendron betulae Swaine (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) excised from newly attacked logs of paper birch, Betula papyrifera Marshall (Betulaceae), as well as volatiles from unattacked birch logs, were analysed by coupled gas chromatographic electroantennographic detection analysis. Active c...

Trail pheromones deposited by ants lead nestmates to food sources. Based on previous evidence that the trail pheromone of the carpenter ant Camponotus modoc originates from the hindgut, our objective in this study was to identify the key component(s) of the pheromone. We collected C. modoc colonies from conifer forests and maintained them in an out...

Ants deposit trail pheromones that guide nestmates to food sources. We tested the hypotheses that ant community members (Western carpenter ants, Camponotus modoc; black garden ants, Lasius niger; European fire ants, Myrmica rubra) (1) sense, and follow, each other’s trail pheromones, and (2) fail to recognize trail pheromones of allopatric ants (pa...

As part of an ongoing program to identify sex attractant pheromone components that mediate sexual communication in yellowjacket wasps, a novel sesquiterpene was isolated from body surface extracts of virgin bald-faced hornet queens, Dolichovespula maculata. The gross structure of this sesquiterpene was proposed through microscale spectroscopic anal...

Plant essential oils (EOs) have been considered as spatial repellents to help disrupt the pathogen transmission cycle of mosquitoes. Our objective was to assess spatial repellency effects of EOs on the tropical yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti (L.) (Diptera: Culicidae) and on local mosquito populations in coastal British Columbia (Canada). In l...

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Female mosquitoes exploit olfactory, CO2, visual, and thermal cues to locate vertebrate hosts. Male and female mosquitoes also consume floral nectar that provides essential energy for flight and survival. Heretofore, nectar-foraging mosquitoes were thought to be guided solely by floral odorants. Using common tansies, Tanacetum vulgare L., northern...

In recent studies, the yeast species Hanseniaspora uvarum and Lachancea thermotolerans were isolated from the digestive tract of four North American yellowjacket species (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), and attraction of yellowjackets to brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (all Saccharomycetaceae), growing on fruit powder was demonstrated. We tested t...

Plant sugar is an essential dietary constituent for mosquitoes, and hemipteran honeydew is one of the many forms of plant sugar that is important to mosquitoes. Many insects rely on volatile honeydew semiochemicals to locate aphids or honeydew itself. Mosquitoes exploit volatile semiochemicals to locate sources of plant sugar but their attraction t...

Plant sugar is an essential dietary constituent for mosquitoes, and hemipteran honeydew is one of the many forms of plant sugar important to mosquitoes. Many insects rely on volatile honeydew semiochemicals to locate aphids or honeydew itself. Mosquitoes exploit volatile semiochemicals to locate sources of plant sugar but their attraction to honeyd...

Recently, it was reported (i) that the sex pheromone blend of male house mice, Mus musculus, comprises not only volatile components (3,4-dehydro-exo-brevicomin; 2-sec-butyl-4,5-dihydrothiazole) but also a component of low volatility (the sex steroid testosterone), and (ii) that the sex steroids progesterone and estradiol are sex pheromone component...

Mosquitoes vector a myriad of pathogens, making them one of the deadliest organisms on the planet. Of the many tactics used to interrupt the transmission cycle of mosquito-borne pathogens, mosquito spatial repellents show promise. Compared to topical repellents, which protect the individual wearing them, spatial repellents work in the vapour phase...

Previously, we showed that the symbiotic yeast Lachancea thermotolerans (Filippov) (Saccharomycetales: Saccharomycetaceae) is attractive to its Vespula (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) yellowjacket hosts when grown on media supplemented with grape juice. We hypothesized that "Concerto", a commercial strain of this yeast, could be combined with fruit powder...

Western skunk cabbage, Lysichiton americanus (Araceae), is pollinated mainly by the rove beetle Pelecomalium testaceum (Staphylinidae). Our objective was to determine the floral semiochemical(s) of L. americanus that attract(s) P. testaceum. Porapak Q headspace volatile extracts of L. americanus inflorescences were analyzed by gas chromatographic–e...

Bald‐faced hornets build massive aerial nests tended by female workers. In late summer, they rear virgin queens. In their Communication (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201804666), R. G. Linington, R. Britton, G. Gries et al. report that these queens produce sex pheromone components, termed maculatic acids, that attract males. This first insight into the mechani...

Langkopfwespen bauen riesige Nester, die von Arbeiterinnen gepflegt werden. Im Spätsommer ziehen sie junge Königinnen auf, die Maculatinsäuren als Pheromonkomponenten produzieren, um Drohnen anzuziehen. R. G. Linington, R. Britton, G. Gries et al. berichten in ihrer Zuschrift (DOI: 10.1002/ange.201804666) über erste Erkenntnisse zum Mechanismus der...

Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) of social insects have typically been studied for their roles in reproductive signaling (i.e., fertility) rather than sexual signaling (i.e., interest in mating), resulting in little information about CHCs of males and virgin females. This dearth of information applies particularly to social wasps. We tested the hypoth...

We tested the recent hypothesis that the “fly factor” phenomenon (food currently or previously fed on by flies attracts more flies than the same type of food kept inaccessible to flies) is mediated by bacterial symbionts deposited with feces or regurgitated by feeding flies. We allowed laboratory‐reared black blow flies, Phormia regina (Meigen), to...

Yellowjackets in the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula are prevalent eusocial insects of great ecological and economic significance but the chemical signals of their sexual communication systems have defied structural elucidation. Herein, we report the identification of sex attractant pheromone components of virgin bald‐faced hornet queens (Dolicho...

Yellowjackets in the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula are prevalent eusocial insects of great ecological and economic significance but the chemical signals of their sexual communication systems have defied structural elucidation. Herein, we report the identification of sex attractant pheromone components of virgin bald‐faced hornet queens (Dolicho...

We have recently developed new food baits (SFU Mouse Bait, SFU Rat Bait) for trapping granivorous house mice, Mus musculus, and black rats, Rattus rattus, and for trapping omnivorous brown rats, Rattus norvegicus. Both baits contain synthetic long-range volatile food attractants that represent favourite rodent foods. They draw foraging rodents to t...

Bread-in-beer and bread-in-water are prevalent home recipe trap baits for attracting German cockroaches (GCRs), Blattella germanica (L.) (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae), which are significant urban pests. Our objectives were to (1) test the attractiveness of these baits, (2) study the underlying factors of GCR attraction, and (3) determine whether a bl...

We have recently shown that the aggregation pheromone of the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, comprises a six-component blend of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS), (E)-2-hexenal, (E)-2-octenal, 2-hexanone, and histamine. Here, we tested the hypothesis that bed bugs biosynthesize some pheromone components from amino acid precur...

The German yellowjacket, Vespula germanica F., and common yellowjacket, Vespula vulgaris L. (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), are pests of significant economic, environmental, and medical importance in many countries. There is a need for the development and improvement of attractive baits that can be deployed in traps to capture and kill these wasps in area...

The back cover picture shows a female house mouse sensing sex attractant pheromone components [optical isomers of 3,4-dehydro-exo-brevicomin (DEB), (S)-2-(sec-butyl)-4,5-dihydrothiazole (DHT), testosterone] emanating from the urine marking of a male house mouse. Testosterone was well known to control the expression of sexual characteristics and bod...

Sex hormones of mammals control the expression of sexual characteristics and bodily functions. The male hormone testosterone and the female hormones progesterone and estradiol are known to occur in urine markings of mice. Herein, we show that all three hormones are also present in urine of brown rats, and that they are effective sexual communicatio...

Urine of male house mice, Mus musculus, is known to have primer pheromone effects on the reproductive physiology of female mice. Urine-mediated releaser pheromone effects that trigger certain behavioral responses are much less understood, and no field studies have investigated whether urine deposits by male or female mice, or synthetic mouse pherom...

Speciation can involve a transition from a few genetic loci that are resistant to gene flow to genome-wide differentiation. However, only limited data exist concerning this transition and the factors promoting it. Here, we study phases of speciation using data from >100 populations of 11 species of Timema stick insects. Consistent with early phases...

Key message The monoterpenoid content of Thuja plicata needles and scales differs both quantitatively and qualitatively. Resin storage structures are associated with anatomical modifications that suggest facilitated exit of monoterpenoids. Abstract Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) is a highly valued source of lumber. T. plicata trees planted in ref...

The male brown rat marks his territory with urine deposits, thereby deterring potential male intruders while retaining females within his deme and attracting wandering females to it. In their Communication on page 6062 ff., G. Gries et al. report the identification and field testing of the urine-derived sex pheromone, which, when added to food-bait...

Männliche Wanderratten markieren ihr Revier mit Urin, um männliche Konkurrenten abzuschrecken, Weibchen in ihrer Lokalpopulation zu halten und umherstreifende Weibchen anzulocken. In der Zuschrift auf S. 6166 ff. beschreiben G. Gries et al. die Zusammensetzung des aus Urin gewonnenen Sexualpheromons; wenn Fallen mit Köder dieses zusätzlich enthalte...

In eusocial insects like Bald-faced hornets, Dolichovespula maculata, nest defense is essential because nests contain a large number of protein-rich larvae and pupae, and thus are attractive to nest predators. Our objectives were to investigate whether D. maculata exhibit pheromone-mediated nest defense, and to identify and field test any pheromone...

Trapping brown rats is challenging because they avoid newly placed traps in their habitat. Herein, we report the identification of the sex pheromone produced by male brown rats and its effect on trap captures of wild female brown rats. Collecting urine- and feces-soiled bedding material of laboratory-kept rats and comparing the soiled-bedding odora...

The sex pheromone of the endoparasitoid insect Xenos peckii (Strepsiptera: Xenidae) was recently identified as (7E,11E)-3,5,9,11-tetramethyl-7,11-tridecadienal. Herein we report the asymmetric synthesis of three candidate stereostructures for this pheromone using a synthetic strategy that relies on an sp(3) -sp(2) Suzuki-Miyaura coupling to constru...

We investigated foraging decisions by adult females of the common green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata, in accordance with their physiological state. When we gave female flies a choice between visually occluded, fresh canine feces (feeding site) and a CO2-euthanized rat (carrion oviposition site), 3-d-old “protein-starved” females responded equally w...

Xenos peckii is a strepsipteran parasitoid of the common North American paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus. Mate-seeking X. peckii males respond to a long-range sex pheromone emitted by the female, which remains permanently embedded within the abdomen of a mobile host wasp. During peak pheromone signalling, we excised the female from her host, severed t...

Chemical communication is common in spiders but few pheromones have been identified. Female widow spiders in the genus Latrodectus spin webs that disseminate an attractive sex pheromone, and a contact pheromone on the silk elicits courtship behavior by males. The methyl ester of N-3-methylbutanoyl-O-(S)-2-methylbutanoyl-L-serine is a contact pherom...

Nach ihrer Blutmahlzeit versammeln sich Bettwanzen als Reaktion auf ein Pheromongemisch zu Schwärmen. Das Pheromon verursacht bei Kontakt Ruhigstellung der Tiere und besteht aus fünf flüchtigen Lockmolekülen sowie Histamin, wie R. Britton, G. Gries und Mitarbeiter in ihrer Zuschrift auf S. 1151 ff. erläutern. Es ist hoch wirksam beim Anlocken von B...

After feeding on blood bed bugs aggregate in response to a pheromone blend comprising five attractive volatile components and histamine, which causes arrestment upon contact. In their Communication on page 1135 ff., R. Britton, G. Gries, and co-workers demonstrate the high effectiveness of this blend at luring bed bugs into traps in infested premis...

Bed bugs have become a global epidemic and current detection tools are poorly suited for routine surveillance. Despite intense research on bed bug aggregation behavior and the aggregation pheromone, which could be used as a chemical lure, the complete composition of this pheromone has thus far proven elusive. Here, we report that the bed bug aggreg...

Bed bugs have become a global epidemic and current detection tools are poorly suited for routine surveillance. Despite intense research on bed bug aggregation behavior and the aggregation pheromone, which could be used as a chemical lure, the complete composition of this pheromone has thus far proven elusive. Here, we report that the bed bug aggreg...

This invention relates to compositions of one or more compounds that incorporate one or more allyl sulfide, allyl disulfide or allyl polysulfide moieties, or one or more allyl sulfide, allyl disulfide or allyl polysulfide moieties and one or more hydroxyl groups, used in effective amount in formulations, including emulsions, to repel blood-feeding...

Gravid females of the common green bottle fly, Lucilia sericata Meigen (Diptera: Calliphoridae), readily locate recently deceased vertebrates as oviposition sites, particularly when these animals have been injured. We investigated semiochemical and visual cues that mediate attraction of gravid females to fresh rat carrion. Female flies were more st...

Volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) are used by female moths to find host plants for oviposition and specialist moths can be highly tuned to the volatile signature of their host plant. The ash leaf-coneroller, Caloptilia fraxinella (Ely) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) specializes on ash (Fraxinus spp.) (Oleaceae). Its introduction to urban forests in...

Male coconut rhinoceros beetles, Orycres rhinoceros (L.), produce three sex-specific compounds, ethyl 4-methyloctanoate, ethyl 4-methylhep-tanoate, and 4-methyloctanoic acid, the first of which is an aggregation pher-omone. Synthesis of these compounds involving conjugate addition of organocuprates to ethyl acrylate is reported. In field trapping e...

Red-throated Caracaras Ibycter americanus (Falconidae) are specialist predators of social wasps in the Neotropics. It had been proposed that these caracaras possess chemical repellents that allow them to take the brood of wasp nests without being attacked by worker wasps. To determine how caracaras exploit nests of social wasps and whether chemical...

Environmental shifts and lifestyle changes may result in formerly adaptive traits becoming non-functional or maladaptive. The subsequent decay of such traits highlights the importance of natural selection for adaptations, yet its causes have rarely been investigated. To study the fate of formerly adaptive traits after lifestyle changes, we evaluate...

Individuals commonly prefer certain trait values over others when choosing their mates. If such preferences diverge between populations, they can generate behavioral reproductive isolation and thereby contribute to speciation. Reproductive isolation in insects often involves chemical communication, and cuticular hydrocarbons, in particular, serve a...

Thuja plicata (western redcedar) is a long-lived conifer species whose foliage is rarely affected by disease or insect pests, but can be severely damaged by ungulate browsing. Deterrence to browsing correlates with high foliar levels of terpenoids, in particular the monoterpenoid α-thujone. Here, we set out to identify genes whose products may be i...

Synanthedon myopaeformis Borkhausen (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae) is a diurnal clearwing moth native to Eurasia that was recently introduced into British Columbia (BC) and Ontario, Canada, where it has become a serious pest in apple orchards. In BC, these moths commonly feed on nectar of inflorescences, particularly that of showy milkweed, Asclepias spec...

Thuja plicata (western redcedar) is a long-lived conifer species whose foliage is rarely affected by disease or insect pests, but can be severely damaged by ungulate browsing. Deterrence to browsing correlates with high foliar levels of terpenoids, in particular the monoterpenoid α-thujone. Here we set out to identify genes whose products may be in...

We identified and field-tested the sex pheromones of Dasineura oxycoccana (Johnson) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) midges collected from cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton, and from highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum L., commonly named cranberry tipworm (CTW) and blueberry gall midge (BGM), respectively. Coupled gas chromatographic-electroanten...

Raspberry crown borer, Pennisetia marginata (Harris) (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae), is a native North American species and pest of many cane fruits. Using coupled gas chromatographic–electroantennographic detection analyses (GC-EAD) we identified candidate sex pheromone components in pheromone gland extracts and effluvia from calling females. Analysis of...

Close-range sexual communication of the egg parasitoid wasp Ooencyrtus kuvanae (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) takes place on host gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), egg masses. We tested the hypothesis that mate recognition in O. kuvanae is mediated, in part, by low-volatility cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) pheromone components. Gas...

As part of their indirect defense, plants under herbivore attack release volatile chemicals that attract natural enemies of the herbivore. This is a very well-documented phenomenon. However, relatively few studies have investigated the response of plants to different population levels of herbivores and their feeding duration. Working with larvae of...

La sésie du pommier, Synanthedon myopaeformis (Borkhausen) (Lepidoptera : Sesiidae), est une espèce européenne retrouvée à Cawston, Colombie-Britannique, Canada, en 2005. À l'aide d'un couplage de Chromatographie en phase gazeuse et de détection électroantennographique, nous avons identifié les composantes possibles de la phéromone sexuelle dans de...