Department of Entomology, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, 14456, Geneva, New York.
J Chem Ecol. 1988 Jan;14(1):47-57. doi: 10.1007/BF01022530.
The response of male cabbage looper (CL) and soybean iooper (SBL) moths was observed in the flight tunnel and measured in field tests to the six-component CL pheromone, the five-component SBL pheromone, and toZ7-12: OAc, the major component common to each pheromone. In both the flight tunnel and the field, male CL exhibited significantly greater levels of response to their six-component blend than toZ7-12: OAc alone. A low level of cross-attraction of male CL to the SBL pheromone was observed in both the flight tunnel and the field, but it was quantitatively and qualitatively similar to their response toZ7-12: OAc alone. Thus the minor components of the SBL blend did not appear to disrupt the flight behavior of male CL. With respect to SBL, in the flight tunnel males also exhibited a greater level of response to the five-component blend compared toZ7-12: OAc, but in the field their response was not significantly different to either treatment. There was also a low level of cross-attraction of male SBL to the CL blend, but this appeared to involve a significant arrestment effect on the upwind flight of males, as well as a difference in male sensitivity to the blend of components compared withZ7-12: OAc alone. The observed arrestment effect may have been due to male perception of one or more minor components of the CL pheromone. The results show that the multicomponent pheromones of these species function effectively as specific mating signals and that discrimination of odor quality by male moths can occur as the result of minor components affecting male sensitivity or their upwind flight response to the pheromone.
雄性菜粉蝶和豆荚野螟对六种成分的菜粉蝶信息素、五种成分的豆荚野螟信息素以及每种信息素的主要成分 Z7-12：OAc 的反应在飞行隧道中进行了观察，并在田间试验中进行了测量。在飞行隧道和田间，雄性菜粉蝶对其六成分混合物的反应明显大于单独对 Z7-12：OAc 的反应。在飞行隧道和田间都观察到雄性 CL 对 SBL 信息素的交叉吸引力较低，但与单独对 Z7-12：OAc 的反应相似。因此，SBL 混合物的次要成分似乎并没有破坏雄性 CL 的飞行行为。就 SBL 而言，雄性在飞行隧道中对五成分混合物的反应也大于单独对 Z7-12：OAc 的反应，但在田间，它们对两种处理的反应没有明显差异。雄性 SBL 对 CL 混合物也有较低水平的交叉吸引力，但这似乎涉及到对雄性顺风飞行的显著阻止效应，以及雄性对混合物成分的敏感性与单独对 Z7-12：OAc 的敏感性的差异。观察到的阻止效应可能是由于雄性对 CL 信息素的一种或多种次要成分的感知。结果表明，这些物种的多成分信息素有效地作为特定的交配信号发挥作用，并且雄蛾对气味质量的辨别可以通过次要成分影响雄蛾的敏感性或它们对信息素的顺风飞行反应来实现。
