Ester-functionalized Pheromone

Ester-functionalized Pheromone List

Insect pheromone is a chemical substance that interacts between individual insects, which can affect each other's behavior, habits, and even development and physiological activities. Insect pheromone is produced by the glands in the insect body, and directly discharged from the body, and transmitted to other individuals by air, water and other conductive media. Insect pheromones mainly include sex pheromone, aggregation pheromone, warning pheromone, tracer pheromone, labeling pheromone, etc. Insect pheromone has become the current research hotspot of entomologists due to its trace, high efficiency, non-polluting, and compatibility with pesticides, and it is widely used. t has the following advantages: most of them are easy to volatilize; easy to be oxidized and biodegraded; have no direct insecticidal effect, and can prevent pests by trapping and obscurity; low toxicity and no environmental pollution; high biological activity; very specialized. Most insect pheromones are mainly ester functional groups. For example, most sex pheromones are ester compounds.

Figure 1. The structure of two compounds of ester insect pheromone

Applications:

• Insect situation monitoring: The first use of sex pheromone and sex attractant in pest control to monitor insect situation. Because of its high sensitivity, good accuracy, easy use, and low cost, it has been widely used.
• Interference with mating: This method uses a certain sex pheromone to directly prevent pests. Interfering with mating is often referred to as a "misleading method", that is, setting up sex pheromone diffusers on site, the air is filled with the smell of sex pheromone, which makes it impossible for males to distinguish directions and find females for mating. And because the male antennae are exposed to high concentrations of sex pheromone for a long time, they lose their ability to respond to female calls. It is also possible to set up an appropriate number of traps in the prevention and control area to trap and kill males who have courtship and mating in the wild. In this way females will lose the opportunity to mate, and they will not be able to effectively reproduce their offspring and die.
• Biological pesticides: Insect pheromones are often used to prepare biological pesticides, which can effectively eliminate or inhibit harmful organisms. It has environmental friendliness, non-drug resistance and other advantages that traditional pesticides can't match. It can use pheromone such as Ritalin to eliminate pests.

Classification:

• Sex pheromone: Insect sex pheromone refers to the hormone secreted by mature female insects that can attract male insects to mate. A few insects (such as butterflies) secrete sex pheromones that attract females from the fragrant scales on the wings of males. The sex pheromone of most lepidopteran insects is a mixture of acetate and other components.
• Altrusine: The pheromone is a pheromone that is unfavorable to the releaser and beneficial to the recipient. Most insect uses metabolites to provide information for finding a host for its natural enemies. For example, the pheromone in aphid feces provides information for predatory natural enemies, and the pheromone in hemolymph provides information for parasitic wasps to lay eggs.