(R)-Desmolactone Is a Sex Pheromone or Sex Attractant for the Endangered Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle Desmocerus californicus dimorphus and Several Congeners (Cerambycidae: Lepturinae)

This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by the author(s) and published by the Public Library of Science. The published article can be found at: http://www.plosone.org/.We report here that (4R,9Z)-hexadec-9-en-4-olide [(R)-desmolactone] is a sex\ud attractant or sex pheromone for multiple species and subspecies in the cerambycid\ud genus Desmocerus. This compound was previously identified as a female-produced\ud sex attractant pheromone of Desmocerus californicus californicus.\ud Headspace volatiles from female Desmocerus aureipennis aureipennis contained\ud (R)-desmolactone, and the antennae of adult males of two species responded\ud strongly to synthetic (R)-desmolactone in coupled gas chromatography-electroantennogram\ud analyses. In field bioassays in California, Oregon, and British\ud Columbia, traps baited with synthetic (R)-desmolactone captured males of several\ud Desmocerus species and subspecies. Only male beetles were captured, indicating\ud that this compound acts as a sex-specific attractant, rather than as a signal for\ud aggregation. In targeted field bioassays, males of the US federally threatened\ud subspecies Desmocerus californicus dimorphus responded to the synthetic\ud attractant in a dose dependent manner. Our results represent the first example of a\ud ‘‘generic’’ sex pheromone used by multiple species in the subfamily Lepturinae, and\ud demonstrate that pheromone-baited traps may be a sensitive and efficient method\ud of monitoring the threatened species Desmocerus californicus dimorphus,\ud commonly known as the valley elderberry longhorn beetle