Chemical analysis of oxygenated homosesquiterpenes: a putative sex pheromone from Lutzomyia lichyi (Diptera: Psychodidae)

Abstract

AbstractLutzomyia lichyi (Floch & Abbonenc) is a suggested secondary vector of Leishmania in Colombia. Taxonomically, L. lichyi is very closely related to the L. longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva) species complex. Male members of the complex can be distinguished by their sex pheromones which are produced in papules found grouped together in pale patches on tergites 3 or tergites 3 and 4. Male L. lichyi also have papules, very similar in appearance to those of the L. longipalpis species complex but distributed on tergites 4, 5, 6 and 7. Chemical analysis of male L. lichyi hexane extracts has revealed the presence of two novel oxygenated methylsesquiterpenes. The two major oxygenated terpenes found in the extract of L. lichyi males are tentatively characterized as a primary and tertiary alcohol. The mass spectrum of the proposed primary alcohol is very similar to the published mass spectrum of 3-methyl-α-himachalene, the sex pheromone produced by the Jacobina chemotype of the L. longipalpis complex. The mass spectrum of the proposed tertiary alcohol also has similarities to the 3-methyl-α-himachalene sex pheromone.