CONSTITUENTS OF WING GLAND AND ABDOMINAL HAIR-PENCIL SECRETIONS OF MALE AFRICAN SUGARCANE BORER, ELDANA-SACCHARINA WALKER (LEPIDOPTERA, PYRALIDAE)

In addition to trans-3,7-dimethyl-6-octen-4-olide (eldanolide), vanillin, and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, identified by French workers in the wing gland and abdominal hair pencil secretions of the male African sugarcane borer, Eldana saccharina, we have, in an earlier note, reported the presence of several other terpenoid, aromatic, and unbranched-chain compounds such as, (Z)-3,7-dimethylocta-2,6-dienoic acid, 6,10, 14-trimethyl-2-pentadecanol, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzyl alcohol, 1-octadecane thiol, 16-hexadecanolide, and 18-octadecanolide in these secretions. In the present paper experimental details and spectral evidence supporting the identification of these compounds, as wen as the identification of (Z)-9-hexadecenal and cis-3,7-dimethyl-6-octen-4-olide (cis-eldanolide), are reported. Using electroantennography it was found that male and female antennae reacted approximately equally strongly to both secretions. This result was confirmed in analyses of the secretions using coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography and it was found that male as well as female antennae responded to eldanolide. Vanillin, substituted phenols related to vanillin, and some oxygenated monoterpenes elicited weak responses in male and female antennae. In some analyses 6,10, 14-trimethyl-2-pentadecanol, present in the secretions of the insect, gave a strong antennal response. The results obtained in dynamic and static headspace determinations showed that several of the organic compounds present in the glandular secretions are released in detectable quantities and are present in widely varying quantitative ratios in the effluvia of individual calling male moths.