An insect anti-antiaphrodisiac

  1. Colin S Brent  Is a corresponding author
  2. John A Byers
  3. Anat Levi-Zada
  1. United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, United States
  2. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
  3. Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel
7 figures

Figures

Proportion (±95% binomial confidence limits) of recently mated L. hesperus females courted by virgin males at different intervals after insemination relative to courtship rates for similarly aged virgin females.

Numbers above bars indicate sample sizes. Rates of courtship differs significantly between mated and virgin females for each of the initial four days (2 × 2 χ2-tests, p<0.05).

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.003
MSD ion chromatograms on GC column of (A) the three standards, and (B) a hexane extract of five pooled spermatophores excised from females two days after mating.

Highlighted by arrows are peaks with matching retention times for myristyl acetate (MA), geranylgeranyl acetate (GGA) and geranylgeraniol (GGOH). Also shown are the mass spectra and chemical structures for each of the three compounds: (C) MA, (D) GGA, and (E) GGOH.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.004
Mean concentration (± SD) of myristyl acetate (MA), geranylgeranyl acetate (GGA) and geranylgeraniol (GGOH) per individual sets of accessory glands (AG) of virgin males and in individual spermatophores from females sampled at daily intervals after mating.

GC-MS was used to quantify ten samples consisting of five pooled spermatophores for each interval.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.005
Figure 3—source data 1

Contents of virgin male accessory glands and spermatophore taken from mated females either shortly after insemination or after a 1–5 day long interval.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.006
Mean concentration (± SD) of externalized myristyl acetate (MA), geranylgeranyl acetate (GGA) and geranylgeraniol (GGOH) found in the headspace of four groups each comprised of 20 females sampled at daily intervals after mating.

Data is shown for calculated individual female emittance.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.007
Figure 4—source data 1

Headspace measures of four groups of 20 mated females sampled by SPME for 2 hr at 24 hr intervals, starting on the day of mating.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.008
Proportion (±95% binomial confidence limits) of virgin females courted by virgin males after the females were topically treated with myristyl acetate (MA), geranylgeranyl acetate (GGA), geranylgeraniol (GGOH), or a combination of the compounds (5 ng compound in 1 µl of ethanol), and with ethanol as control.

Treatments with an asterisk over them differed significantly in frequency from the EtOH control (2 × 2 χ2-tests, p<0.05). For all treatments, n = 50.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.009
Proportion (±95% binomial confidence limits) of virgin females courted by males after the females were topically treated with one of four concentrations of myristyl acetate (MA) in ethanol or ethanol alone (n = 111 each).

An asterisk indicates a treatment that evoked significantly fewer courtships than the ethanol control (2 × 2 χ2-tests, p<0.05).

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.010
Proportion (±95% binomial confidence limits) of similarly aged females courted by virgin males.

The females were virgins or newly mated and treated topically with ethanol, or mated and treated with 1 or 10 ng GGOH in ethanol (n = 100 each). Only ethanol treated mated females were courted less often than control virgins (χ2 =12.654, df = 1, p<0.001), indicating that GGOH can counter the full antiaphrodisiac blend of a mated female at biologically relevant doses.

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063.011

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  1. Colin S Brent
  2. John A Byers
  3. Anat Levi-Zada
(2017)
An insect anti-antiaphrodisiac
eLife 6:e24063.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24063