Irena VALTEROVÁ, Aies SVATOS and Oldrich HOVORKA
Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy
of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Flemingovo námesti 2, 166 10 Prague,
The Czech Republic
Chemical signalling plays a crucial role in the reproduction of most insect species. During the flight period in summer, males of many bumblebee species exhibit patrolling behaviour when a chemical signal is placed on a site suitable for mating Known as the marking pheromone, it is secreted by the labial gland of males and, most often, it is a complex mixture of compounds.
The Scandinavian species of bumblebees and cuckoo bumblebees were studied extensively by Bergstrom and' co-workers (1981). We now report the composition of the labial gland secretions produced by four species of bumblebees commonly found in the Czech republic, representing (according to the literature) two possible host-parasite pairs: Bombus terrestris - Psithyrus vestalis and Bombus lucorum - Psithyrus bohemicus (Pekkarinen and Teras, 1993). The two Psithyrus species studied belong to one subgenus, Ashtonipsithyrus The similarities/differences in the composition of the secretion within the subgenus and between the host and the parasite will be reported.
Geranylcitronellol (I) and its corresponding acetate (II) were found to be the main components of the secretion of Psithyrus vestalis. The structure was confirmed by comparison with synthetically prepared standards. 15-Eicosene-1 -ol was identified as a minor component. The double bond position was determined by reaction with DMDS.
Literature: