bostrychophila: HYDROCARBONS, ALDEHYDES, FATTY ACIDS, AND FATTY ACID AMIDES

Abstract—The booklouse, Liposcelis bostrychophila, is an increasingly com-mon pest of stored food products worldwide. We report here the cuticular lipid composition of this pest (the first report of the hydrocarbons of any member of the Order Psocoptera and the first report of fatty acid amides as cuticular compo-nents for any insect). No unsaturated hydrocarbons were present. A homologous series of n-alkanes (C21–C34), monomethyl alkanes (3-, 4-, 5-, 7-, 9-, 11-, 12-, 13- and 15-methyl-) with a carbon chain range of C28–C42, and dimethyl alka-nes (3, 7-; 9, 13-; 11, 15-; 13, 17-; 9, 21-; 11, 19-; and 13, 21-) with a carbon number range of C31–C43 were identified. The relative abundances of these hy-drocarbons were low, comprising approximately 0.0125 % of total biomass. The amides were a homologous series (C16–C22 in chain length), with the major amide being stearoyl amide. In addition to the amides, free fatty acids (C16:1