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First published online March 2, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 964-970 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02726

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Male sex pheromone release and female mate choice in a butterfly

Johan Andersson^1,2, Anna-Karin Borg-Karlson¹, Namphung Vongvanich¹ and Christer Wiklund^2,*

¹ KTH, School of Chemistry and Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Ecological Chemistry Group, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
² Stockholm University, Department of Zoology, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

View larger version (11K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Five representative GC-MS chromatograms showing the emission from one single Pieris napi male, one P. napi male interacting with one male of Pararge aegeria, two P. napi males, and one P. napi male and one virgin P. napi female, and one P. napi male interacting with one mated P. napi female. Volatiles were collected by SPME for 1 h. The two main compounds were neral and geranial, with approximate proportions of 1:1. IS, the internal standard, n-pentadecane.

View larger version (6K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Activity-dependent emission of neral from one single Pieris napi male, one P. napi male interacting with one male of P. aegeria, two P. napi males, one P. napi male and one virgin P. napi female, and one P. napi male interacting with one mated P. napi female. It can be observed that the greater the flight activity of the males (measured in s), the greater the emission of citral.

View larger version (5K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 3. The logarithmic calibration curve of citral, separated into geranial (solid line) and neral (dotted line), as assessed by SPME and GC-MS.

View larger version (7K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Electroantennography dose–response curves to citral (neral and geranial, 1:1) for both sexes of Pieris napi, with the female response above (black lines) and the male response below (broken lines). The responses to different doses of citral for one individual are connected by a line.

View larger version (5K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Number of times females rejected male models when subjected to artificial courtship. All females subjected to courtship by male wings or extracted male models to which citral had been applied exhibited mate acceptance behaviour, a behavior that was never elicited by the extracted odorless male models. Values shown are means ± s.e.m.