ARL, Division of Neurobiology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
Female Manduca sexta moths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) exhibit upwind orientation and egg laying-related behavior when exposed to volatiles released by their hostplants. We collected headspace volatiles from several solanaceous hostplants and one non-solanaceous host and used coupled gas chromatography-electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) to determine what compounds present in the complex blends of these volatiles might be important in eliciting behaviors related to hostplant attraction and oviposition. Antennae responded to a selective minority of peaks in the GC traces of the headspace-volatile blends, and a majority of the significant antennal responses corresponded with intermediate or minor GC peaks, suggesting that these less abundant components might be behaviorally important. To determine if female antennae exhibited sex-specific responses to hostplant volatile components, similar to the sex-specific responses by male antennae to female sex pheromone components, we conducted a parallel study of male moth antennae.