Junwei Zhu,¹ Camilla Ryne, ¹ Rikard Unelius,² Peter G. Valeur¹ and Christer Löfstedt¹

Pheromone gland extracts from calling female Plodia interpunctella contained at least seven compounds that consistently elicited electroantennographic responses from male antenna upon gas chromatographic analysis. Three of these compounds were found to be the previously identified gland constituents, i.e. (Z,E)-9,12-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9,E12-14:OAc), (Z,E)-9,12-tetradecadienal (Z9,E12-14:Ald) and (Z,E)-9,12-tetradecadienol (Z9,E12-14:OH). A fourth EAD-active compound was identified as (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (Z9-14:OAc). The homologue (Z)-11- hexadecenyl acetate (Z11-16:OAc) was also identified in the extracts, but showed no EAD activity. The identity of all five compounds was confirmed by comparison of GC retention times and mass spectra with those of synthetic standards. In flight tunnel tests, male P. interpunctella responded to the bait containing the four EAD-active compounds equally well as to female extracts. A behavioural assay of different 2-compound blends in the flight tunnel showed that only addition of the corresponding aldehyde to the major component Z9,E12-14:OAc raised the male response. A subtractive assay, however, revealed that the exclusion of any of the secondary compounds from the complete 4-compound pheromone blend reduced its activity significantly. We thus conclude that the female-produced sex pheromone of P. interpunctella consists of at least four components, i.e. Z9,E12-14:OAc, Z9,E12-14:Ald, Z9,E12-14:OH and Z9-14:OAc.

In a field trapping test, performed in a storage facility, the 4-component blend attracted significantly more males of P. interpunctella than traps baited with Z9,E12-14:OAc singly. In contrast, the highest number of Ephestia kuehniella males was found in the traps baited with this major component, suggesting that the secondary pheromone components contribute to the species specificity of the blend.

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¹Department of Ecology, Lund University,

SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden

²Department of Chemistry and Biomedical Sciences, University of Kalmar,

SE-391 82 Kalmar, Sweden _ rikard.unelius@ng.hik.se

Yun K. W. , ¹B. K. Sohn and ²J. S. Shin

The effect of aqueous extract of Artemisia princeps var. orientalis and penolic compounds on arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization and plant growth have been investigated. Greenhouse studies showed that the inhibitory effect of the extract on mycorrhizal colonization and plant growth increased in proportion to the concentration of the extract. The GC was employed for analysis and identification of phytotoxic chemicals from Artemisia princeps var. orientalis. Benzoic acid and 16 phenolic compounds were identified in leaf extract(Yun, 1991). When the mycorrhizal test plants were treated with increasing concentration of the phenolic compounds(caffeic and p-coumaric acid), the mycorrhizal colonization in roots of the test plants and the plant growth were decreased linearly. Our experimental results show that allelochemicals of Artemisia princeps var. orientalis have inhibitory effect on mycorrhizal fungal colonization and plant growth.

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Dept. of Oriental Medicine Resources, ¹Dept. of Agricultural Chemistry and ²Dept. of Biology, Sunchon National University, Sunchon, 540-742, Republic of Korea

Kang, Seong-Koo, Yong-Doo Kim, ¹Ok-Ja Choi, ²Kyeong Won Yun and ³Geum-Hee Hwang

To develop natural food preservatives, ethanol and water extracts were prepared from the Coriander(Coriandrum sativum L.) and antimicrobial activities were examined against 10 microorganisms, which were food borne pathogens and/or food poisoning microorganisms and food-related bacteria and yeast. Ethanol extract exhibited antimicrobial activities for the microorganisms tested, but not on lactic acid bacteria and yeast. Especially, minimum inhibitory concentrations(MIC) for Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus cereus were as low as 0.25_/_. Antimicrobial activity of the ethanol extract was not destroyed by the heating at 121_ for 15 min and not affected by pH. The ethanol extract of Coriander exhibiting high antimicrobial activities was fractionated in the order of hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and butanol fractions to test antimicrobial activity. The highest antimicrobial activity for the bacteria tested was found in the ethylacetate fraction. Silica gel column chromatography and HPLC isolated the ethylacetate fraction, which exhibited a strong antimicrobial activity.
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Dept. of Food Science and Technology, ¹Dept. of Food and Cooking Science, ²Dept. of Oriental Medicine Resources, Sunchon National University, Sunchon 540-742, ³Dept. of Food Science & Nutrition, Dongkang College, Kwangju 500-714, Republic of Korea

Kim, J. H., D. S. Yang, J. S. Shin and ¹K. W. Yun

The medicinal plants are required to be cultivated more than 3 years because the effect of the medicine is better. But the cultivation of more than 3 years is the cause of production decrease of the plants. So farmers have cultivated the medicinal plants in the cultivated field for 1 to 2 years. One of the cause of the production decrease is expected due to allelopathic effect of the plants. The allelopathic effect of aqueous extracts from 3 medicinal plants(Scutellaria baicaensis, Ledebouriella seseloides and Buleurum falcatum) on the seed germination and seedlong growth of these plants were investigated. The shoot extracts from these plants inhibited the seed germination of the 3 medicinal plants at higher concentration. Meanwhile, the root extracts of these plants inhibited seed germination even at lower concentration. It showed that these aqueous extracts from 3 medicinal plants exhibited autotoxic effect. The inhibitory effect of these extrects was proportional to the concentration of these extracts on seedling growth of Scutellaria baicaensis and Buleurum falcatum. Dry weight growth was slightly inhibited at lower concentration of the extract while it was severely inhibited at higher concentration of shoot and root extracts.

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Dept. of Biology and ¹Dept. of Oriental Medicine Resources, Sunchon National University, Sunchon, 540-742, Republic of Korea

Kiyoshi Nakamuta¹, Uhsa Rani Pathipati^{1, 2}, Masahiko Tokoro¹ & Tadakazu Nakashima¹

A trogossitid beetle, Trogossita japonica, is a predatory beetle which feeds on wood boring insects in the forests. The Japanese pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus, (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) is one of its prey species, which transmits the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the pathogen of the pine wilt disease of Japanese red pines and black pines. M. alternatus utilizes monoterpenoids, especially alpha-pinene, which are emanated from nematode-infected pine trees, to orientate the host trees for laying eggs. For T. japonica it is advantageous to adopt a similar tactic as M. alternatus to find the prey insects, since the larvae of T. japonica feeds on the larave of M. alternatus in pine forests. We, therefore, analyze the olfactory response of T. japonica to some monoterpenoids in an open Y-track olfactometer and also compare the responses between field-collected (experienced) beetles and artificially-reared (inexperienced) ones. Both experienced and inexperienced beetles showed strong responses to alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and a combination of alpha-pinene and EtOH, but the time spent on finding an odor source in experienced beetles were much shorter than in inexperienced beetles. To delineate the role of experience on odor location, we further analyzed the responses of the artificially-reared beetle which have had a experience of feeding a prey with pine logs. These beetles showed the similar responses to terpenoids as inexperienced or experienced beetles, but the time spent on finding an odor source is shorter than the inexperienced beetles, demonstrating that the experience modifies the odor location in T. japonica.

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¹Forest Biol. Div., Forestry & Forest Prod. Res. Inst., P. O. Box 16, Tsukuba Norin Kenkyu Danchi-nai, 305-8687, Tsukuba, Japan, ² Hort Res., Mt. Albert Res. Center, P. O. Box 92169, Auckland, New Zealand

K. S. Boo, J. M. Lee, K. S. Han, K. H. Choi¹ & S. W. Lee¹, & C. Y. Yang²

Adoxophyes orana and Adoxophyes sp. have not yet been clearly distinguished as a separate species in Korea. This is a part of the research project to study this species complex with several different approaches. This mainly reports their sex pheromone.

GC-MS analysis of their sex pheromone revealed that both species have two main known compounds, (Z)-9-tetradecenyl acetate (Z9-14:Ac) and (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (Z11-14:Ac). GC analysis showed that A. orana has sex pheromone composed of Z9-14:Ac and Z11-14:Ac with the ratio of 5:95, and A. sp. with the ratio of 40:60. In field trapping tests, A. sp. male moths were attracted to most blends having various ratios of the two components at oriental pear orchards, but A. orana to the 5:95 blend at apple and pear orchards. EAG tests also gave a similar trend.

Sex pheromone was produced when decapitated A. sp. females were injected with its males or females head extracts or synthetic Hez-PBAN. This results suggest that sex pheromone biosynthesis in A. sp. is regulated by a neuropeptide in the head.

To identify her PBAN, cDNAs were synthesized from mRNAs isolated from its female adult heads. Using PCR method, a 225 bp-long DNA fragment was produced and sequenced. From this partial cDNA sequence, it can be predicted that there are a PBAN domain with 31 amino acids and two additional peptide domains, 20 amino acid- and 7 amino acid-long sequences, with FXPRL(X = G, T or S) amidated at their C-termini.

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Graduate School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul Natl Univ., Suwon, Korea, 441-744

¹Taegu Apple Res. Institute, RDA, Korea

²Naju Pear Res. Institute, RDA, Korea

ksboo@plaza.snu.ac.kr

Lígia Miranda F. Borges¹, Pedro H. Ferri², José R. Paula³, Álvaro E. Eiras⁴

The chlorinated phenol, 2,6_dichlorophenol (2,6 DCP), has been established as the attractant sex pheromone of ixodid ticks of several different genera. Previously, Borges et al. (J. Med. Entomol 36: 50-4, 1999) have presented evidence for at least two sex pheromones (attractant and mounting) in attractive females of Anocentor nitens (Neumann). This ixodid tick causes several injuries to equines, besides being the vector of Babesia caballi. Although 2,6 DCP could not be identified of sexually mature females, olfactometer bioassays showed attraction of male of A. nitens to a wide range of 2,6 DCP concentrations. We now report, for the first time, the identification of 2,6 DCP from the female extract of A. nitens. Sex pheromones were extracted by submerging 150 females fed for 6 days for 2 h in hexane (3 ml) and sonicating for 15 min. The extract was analysed by GC-MS employing Single Ion Monitoring (SIM) method. Identification of phenol was based on the comparison of mass spectra with computer search using NIST library and by matching the mass spectrum of the peak at retention time of 2,6 DCP from extract and with the synthetic product. On the basis of this study, it is reasonable to assume that 2,6 DCP plays a role as a sex pheromone in A. nitens. However, further identification of the other compounds in the extract should be conduced in order to determine the composition of the sex pheromone of A. nitens.

Financial support: CNPq, PADCT III (Grant No. 620166/97-5), FUNAPE/UFG

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¹Setor de Parasitologia, IPTSP, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Delenda Rezende de Melo s/n, Setor Universitário 74605-050 Goiânia, GO, Brazil; E-mail: ligia@iptsp.ufg.br

²Laboratório de Bioatividade Molecular, Instituto de Química/UFG;

³Laboratório de Farmacognosia, Faculdade de Farmácia/UFG.

⁴Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas/UFMG

Lígia Miranda F. Borges¹, Álvaro Eduardo Eiras², Vanderlei Alves Cardoso³

The tropical horse tick, Anocentor nitens is widespread in Brazil. The presence of sex pheromones in attractive females of A. nitens were previously demonstrated, however the ability of 2,6_dichlorophenol (2,6-DCP), a compound known as attractant sex pheromone for several ixodid ticks, has not been demonstrated for this tick species. In this study, we report the presence of the sex pheromone in A. nitens and the male responses to 2,6-DCP. In a olfactometer bioassay, sexually active males were released individually at 2.5 cm from attractive females, rubber septum (control dummies) and impregnated rubber septum (treated dummies) with crescent concentrations of 2,6-DCP (15, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 ng). The number of males orienting, the time to locate the odor source and the track were observed. Higher percent of orientation and frequencies of angles between 0× and 10× and lower time to locate the odor source were observed for males tested with females than with control. Attraction of males to dummies impregnated with 2,6-DCP was observed with the highest response observed at 50 ng. There was a gradual decrease of responsiveness of males with increasing concentrations of 2,6-DCP. These results suggest the presence of attractant sex pheromones in A. nitens and the role of 2,6-DCP mediating orientation behavior. Mounting and movement of the males to the ventral surface of the dummies impregnated with 2,6-DCP were observed indicating that this compound plays role as mounting sex pheromones. However further behavioral studies should be carried out in order to confirm this role.

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¹Setor de Parasitologia, IPTSP, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Delenda Rezende de Melo s/n, Setor Universitário, 74605-050 Goiânia, GO, Brazil. E-mail: ligia@iptsp.ufg.br. ²Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas/UFMG

³Bolsista de Iniciação Científica _ Graduando em Medicina Veterinária EV/UFG

Vanderlei Alves Cardoso¹, Lígia Miranda F. Borges², Álvaro Eduardo Eiras²

B. microplus is a one-host ixodid tick that causes severe economic losses to cattle ranching. In previous study, 2,6-dichlorophenol (2,6-DCP), a attractant sex pheromone of several ticks, was isolated from this tick species. Receptor cells was observed to respond to this compound in a dose-dependant manner. However, behavioral studies showed that males ticks were not arrested to this compound on a glass bead neither on a servoesphere. In this study, we report the presence of attractant sex pheromone in B. microplus and the orientation of males to dummies treated with 2,6-DCP using an olfactometer bioassay. Males were released at 1.5 and 3.0 cm from females, rubber septum (control dummies) and impregnated rubber septum (treated dummies) with crescent concentrations of 2,6 DCP (5, 10, 15, 50 e 500 ng). The numbers of males locating the odor source and the track were recorded. In both distance, higher percent of orientation and frequencies of angles between 0× e 10× were observed for females and for treated dummies than for control dummies. At 1.5 cm from the source, females and dummies treated with 50 ng elicited higher responses than other treatments. Generally, the level of responsiveness decreased at 3.0 cm from the source, except for 10, 15 and 500 ng which the attraction was enhanced. These results suggest, for the first time, the presence of attractant sex pheromone in B. microplus and the role of 2,6-DCP mediating orientation behavior.

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¹Bolsista de Iniciação Científica _ Graduando em Medicina Veterinária EV/UFG

²Departmento de Parasitologia, IPTSP, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Av. Delenda Rezende de Melo s/n, 74605-050 Goiânia, GO, Brazil. E-mail: ligia@iptsp.ufg.br.

³Departamento de Parasitologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas/UFMG

Llily Falach and Arnon Shani

The beetle Maladera matrida Argaman (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae) was first detected in Israel in 1983 as a species new to science. The life cycle of the beetle was studied, and it was found that the adults emerge from the soil at sunset to feed and mate. Chemical communication among scarabs, the family of beetles to which M. matrida belongs, has only recently become an object of investigation.  A putative long-distance component of female pheromone of M. matrida isolated from female volatiles has been identified as (3Z,6E)-a-farnesene.  Aggregations of beetles are formed on plants during the time of sexual activity (sunset), suggesting that there is short-distance chemical communication as well. It was found that males were attracted to females collected and frozen at sunset, while much less attraction was demonstrated toward females that were collected and frozen in the morning hours. Female cuticular compounds were extracted during the period of sexual activity at sunset as well as at an inactive hour (morning). Three solvents with increasing polarity (n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol) were used. The extracted compounds were characterized by GC-MS.  Several components found in the compounds extracted at sunset could not be found in those extracted in the morning.

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The Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva Israel 84105.

e-mail: falach@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Lúcia M. C. Rebouças, M. Gloria Silva, Ana Claudia A. Lira, Francisco A. O. Paulino, Adriana A. R. Silva, A. Euzébio G. Sant'Ana

Sitophilus zeamais weevils cause severe damage to cereal grains throughout the world, though direct feeding on grain kernels. The male-produced aggregation pheromone of the maize weevil has been identified as (4S,5R)-5-hydroxi-4-methyl-3-heptanone (Sitophilure), (Burkholder et al., 1986). Significant attraction to synthetic pheromone was observed only for 1-day-old and 1-week-old weevil. Repellency was observed at 10 weeks of age for both male and female (Burkholder & Walgenbach, 1986). When plants are damaged, volatile organic compounds will be released to a higher extent and in a different composition compared with undamaged plants. Landolt et al (1999) show that volatile chemicals produced by the plant in response to stimuli from feeding larvae enhance the attractiveness of the plant to female Colorado potato beetles. It appeared interesting to study the response of S. zeamais, to volatile compounds released, from grains of corn (Zea mays) and Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) infested with this weevil. The aim of this work is to found compounds that increase the attraction of the aggregation pheromone. Volatile chemicals were collected each 4 days during 8 days. Male (50) and female (50) adults with age from 2 to 8 days were allowed to feed separely on corn and sorghum grains (100g). Volatile collector traps containing 100 mg of Porapak Q were used as adsorbent and extracted with 2mL of methylene chloride. The four-choice Pattersson olfactometer, with unmated female of 2-3 days old, was used to test the attractancy of extracts for 30 min. The female response to the sorghum infested was higher at 4 days compared to the corn. By the other hand, volatile from corn with 8 days had higher response then sorghum. The results will be discussed.


(4S,5R)-5-hydroxi-4-methyl-3-heptanone

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Depto. Química-CCEN-UFAL-Campus Universitario - 57.072-970 -Maceió-AL-Brasil

Francis Frédéric, Haubruge Eric, Arnaud Ludovic & Gaspar Charles

Insects developed adaptations to protect themselves against toxic compounds. Glutathione S-transferases (GST) play an important role in the detoxification of many substances including plant allelochemicals. Brassicacae plants contain glucosinolates (GLS) and emit volatile isothiocyanates (ITC) which affect the GST system and act as infochemicals for both phytophagous and entomophagous insects. While generalist pests are deterred by GLS or volatile ITC, Brassicacae specialist as Brevicoryne brassicae use them as feeding stimulants. Suitability of many aphid species including B. brassicae was already studied for some aphidophagous predators. Even if polyphagous insects as Adalia bipunctata are considered, some aphid species provide only low quality food which could be due to the presence of secondary compounds from plant. Identification of GLS related degradation products was investigated in aphids by gas chromatography _ mass spectrometry.

High amount of benzyl-ITC were identified in B. brassicae reared on Sinapis alba and the ladybird GST activity increased with the allelochemical presence in prey. Experiments using artificial diets including different amounts of sinigrin, allyl- and benzyl-ITC showed changes in the ladybird GST activities from a 0.1% concentration in diet, also with an increase of the mortality rates of the predators mainly with the ITC compounds from a 0.3% concentration in diet.

Food quality is known to influence the biological performances of aphidophagous ladybirds. Impact of plant allelochemicals on predators throughout aphid prey constitutes an important environmental change of the beneficial insect and was discussed to underline the role of the plant in integrated pest management in terms of biological control efficacy.
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Unit of pure and applied Zoology - Gembloux Agricultural University

Passage des Déportés 2, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium

e-mail : francis.f@fsagx.ac.be

Danho Mathias¹, Haubruge Eric¹, Arnaud Ludovic¹,Gaspar Charles¹ and Lognay Georges²

The aims of this study were to investigate the selection of grain-hosts by Prostephanus truncatus, and the oviposition preferences of Sitophilus zeamais, placed separately in an environment containing both uninfested maize grains and previously infested maize grains by the maize weevil.

Initially, the influence of the previous infestation of S. zeamais and the effect of the presence of egg plugs on the choice of grain-hosts by P. truncatus and on oviposition sites selection of S. zeamais were examined on maize grains. Results showed that P. truncatus were significantly found in uninfested grains. Therefore, infested grains have deterrent effect on P. truncatus. S. zeamais, females preferentially oviposited on host grains bearing conspecific eggs than on uninfested grains. We hypothesised that this behaviour was probably due to the aggregation pheromone, intraspecific competition or egg marking.

Secondly, we examined the chemical mechanisms involved in grain-hosts selection by P. truncatus. It appeared that the deterrent effect of the infested grains on P. truncatus was associated with the existence of chemicals produced on infested grains. These products were soluble in organic solvents (n-hexane, diethyl-ether and methanol). Indeed, when the infested grains were soaked with one of the three solvents, P. truncatus were found indiscriminately in the uninfested and the infested maize grains.
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¹Unit of pure and applied Zoology, ²Unit of pure and organic Chemistry

Gembloux Agricultural University - Passage des Déportés 2, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium

e-mail: danho.m@fsagx.ac.be

José Maurício S. Bento¹, José Roberto P. Parra¹, Evaldo F. Vilela², Walter S. Leal³

Ecdytolopha aurantiana Lima is a very important borer pest of orange fruit in Neotropical areas. Males and virgin females of this pest display two flight peaks during a 24 h period, one at dawn and the other at dusk on orange grove. During the day, when temperatures were the highest and relative humidity the lowest, most individuals rested on the leaves in the lower and middle crown. On the other hand, moths rapidly moved higher in the crown after sunset and many were observed flying above the tree canopy. This behavior was mainly associated with mating and mediated by sex pheromone, because males of E. aurantiana were attracted to traps baited with virgin females or natural extracts in hexane. All copulation couples were observed in the upper crown of citrus trees from 6:00 to 9:00 PM, with more than 64.0% of episodes occurring between 7:00 and 8:00 PM. The present results pave the way for the identification of sex pheromone system and its use for monitoring citrus borer moth populations in the near future.

Financial Support: Fundecitrus
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¹Dep. Entomol., Fitop. e Zool. Agrícola, ESALQ-USP, 13418-900, Piracicaba-SP, Brazil, E-mail jmsbento@carpa.ciagri.usp.br; ² Dep. Biologia Animal, UFV, 36570-000, Viçosa-MG, Brazil; ³ Dep. Entomology, University of California Davis, Davis-CA, 95616-8585 USA.

Nélida E. Gómez

Some cassidine larvae that eat plants of the genus Cordia (Boraginaceae), construct highly stable, very dark, quasi stone-like fecal appendages (1), which vary in shape and weight; others carry only exuvial appendages or none. How cassidine larvae build such stable structures has been a topic of speculation for more than a century (2, 3, 4, 5). In addition to phenoloxidases, detected in fresh feculae, that explain the physical stability of the fecal appendages, certain larval anatomical features are essential to their construction and symmetry: the furca, extrudable anus, and scoli. This is a first attempt to offer a satisfactory explanation for the remarkable stability and diversity of cassidine fecal appendages.

1. Windsor, D.M. et al., in: Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica: selected studies (ed. by D. Quintero Arias and A. Aiello), pp. 372-391. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992.

2. Fiebrig, K., Zool. Jahrbuch, Suppl. 12:161-264, 1910.

3. Engel, H. , Zool. Morph. Ökol. der Tiere 30:42-96., 1935

4. Eisner, T. et al., Science 158:1471-1473, 1967.

5. Eisner, T. and Eisner, M. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 97:2632-2636, 2000.
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Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,

PO Box 2072, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama

Nélida.E. Gómez

Phenotypic variation in Cordia curassavica is extreme, and many of its variants have been identified as taxonomically distinct. Individuals vary from reduced stature with small leaves to more robust individuals, larger in all aspects, with broader leaves. Cordia curassavica from Panama contains mono- and sesquiterpenes that vary greatly in their compositional profile (1). Despite the chemical variation and their habit of spreading by rhizomes, three distinctive leaf monoterpene types can be recognized, sometimes co-occurring within the same population. Hybrids between C. curassavica and C. spinescens have been reported (2); terpenoids in leaf tissue of both species differ much in composition and concentration. Conversely, leaf lower terpenoids in C. cylindristachya reassemble those of C. curassavica. A number of chrysomelid beetle species are specialists on C. curassavica and C. spinescens in Panama.

1. Gómez, N. et al., J. Chem. Ecol. 25:1007-2002, 1999.

2. Miller, J.S., Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75:456-521, 1988.
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Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,

PO Box. 2072, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama

Alcindo Aparecido dos Santos, Orlando Delay Jr., Paulo Henrique Gorgatti Zarbin^*, Alfredo Ricardo Marques de Oliveira, Fábio Simonelli, and Francisco de Assis Marques

Many g-lactones with different alkyl side chains have been isolated and identified as insects pheromones. The chirality of these natural products is normally a factor of great importance on the biological activity of these compounds. Herein we are introducing an alternative approach to the synthesis of a variety of g-lactones, employing a coupling reaction of iodide (2) with an anion generated from 2-oxazoline (3) as the key step.


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Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19081 81531-990, Curitiba, PR _ Brazil; ^*e-mail: pzarbin@quimica.ufpr.br