Abstract
Olfactory communication research with insects utilizing sex pheromones has focused on the effects of pheromones on signal receivers. Early pheromone detection studies using the silkworm moth, Bombyx mori L., and Saturniids led to the assumption that emitters, especially females, are unable to detect their own pheromone. Pheromone anosmia, i.e., the inability of females to detect their conspecific sex pheromone, was often assumed, and initially little attention was paid to female behaviors that may result from autodetection, i.e., the ability of females to detect their sex pheromone. Detection of conspecific pheromone plumes from nearby females may provide information to improve chances of mating success and progeny survival. Since the first documented example in 1972, numerous occurrences of autodetection have been observed and verified in field and laboratory studies. We summarize here a significant portion of research relating to autodetection. Electrophysiological and behavioral investigations, as well as expression patterns of proteins involved in pheromone autodetection are included. We discuss problems inherent in defining a boundary between sex and aggregation pheromones considering the occurrence of autodetection, and summarize hypothesized selection pressures favoring autodetection. Importance of including autodetection studies in future work is emphasized by complications arising from a lack of knowledge combined with expanding the use of pheromones in agriculture.
Highlights
Results from electrophysiological work using electroantennograms (EAG). Of both male and female moths have provided the basis for the using electroantennograms (EAG) of both male and female moths have provided the basis for the creation and and clarification clarification of of the the terms terms “pheromone anosmia” and and “autodetection”
These are are almost almost creation entirely used in reference to female-produced sex pheromones of moths, and the response, or lack entirely used in reference to female-produced sex pheromones of moths, and the response, or lack thereof, from female antennae exposed to those pheromones
The behavior of female insects that can detect their own pheromone signal can sometimes be similar to the response mediated by aggregation pheromones (Figure 1); female behaviors are influenced in many ways as a result of autodetection
Summary
In the process of describing autodetection, and why it is imperative to expand our understanding of it, some general background concepts should be reviewed. Schneider et al [6] stated that “Female antennae of most moth species are apparently anosmic to their own odour, while autodetection of female pheromones is a less frequently observed phenomenon” It was almost two decades after the initial ground breaking advances in insect sex pheromone research of the 1950s that the unpredicted behavior of virgin females of the noctuid moth, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was observed; namely, their capture in significant numbers, along with males, in pheromone-baited traps [7]. This observation provided a clue that long-distance pheromone-mediated interactions within some species were not always limited to calling females and responding males. These more complex interactions have yet to be fully explored
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