Sex pheromone for the brownbanded cockroach is an unusual dialkyl-substituted alpha-pyrone.

Female brownbanded cockroaches, Supella longipalpa, emit a sex pheromone that attracts males from a distance. This pheromone was isolated and identified as 5-(2,4-dimethylheptanyl)-3-methyl-2H-pyran-2-one (which we refer to as supellapyrone), and its structure was confirmed by synthesis. A racemic blend of the synthetic compound elicited behavioral and electrophysiological responses comparable to the natural pheromone across a range of doses. This compound is not only a very different type of cockroach pheromone but also makes up an additional class of natural products--namely, 3,5-dialkyl-substituted alpha-pyrones.

Sex pheromone production and perception in European corn borer moths is determined by both autosomal and sex-linked genes.

Inheritance patterns for sex pheromone production in females, pheromone detection on male antennal olfactory receptor cells, and male pheromone behavioral responses were studied in pheromonally distinct populations of European corn borers from New York State. Gas chromatographic analyses of pheromone glands, single sensillum recordings, and flight tunnel behavioral analyses were carried out on progeny from reciprocal crosses, as well as on progeny from subsequent F(2) and maternal and paternal backcrosses. The data show that the production of the female pheromone blend primarily is controlled by a single autosomal factor, that pheromone-responding olfactory cells are controlled by another autosomal factor, and that behavioral response to pheromone is controlled by a sex-linked gene. F(1) males were found to possess olfactory receptor cells that give spike amplitudes to the two pheromone isomers that are intermediate to those of the high and low amplitude cells of the parent populations. Fifty-five percent of the F(1) males tested responded fully to pheromone sources ranging from the hybrid (E)-11-tetradecenyl acetate/(Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (E/Z) molar blend of 65:35 to the E/Z molar blend of 3:97 for the Z morph parents, but very few responded to the E/Z molar blend of 99:1 for the E morph parents. Data on the inheritance patterns support speculation that the Z morph is the ancestral and that the E morph is the derived European corn borer population.