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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Electroantennographic Bioassay as a Screening Tool for Host Plant Volatiles
Published on: May 6, 2012
Identification of male-specific chiral compound from the sugarcane weevil Sphenophorus levis
Paulo H G Zarbin1, Enrico de Beni Arrigoni, Aurélia Reckziegel
1Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Laboratório de Ecologia Química e Síntese Orgânica, CP 19081 CEP 81531-990 Curitiba-PR, Brazil. pzarbin@quimica.ufpr.br
Abstract:
Comparative gas chromatographic analyses of airborne volatiles produced by males and females of the sugarcane weevil Sphenophorus levis, showed one male-specific compound. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry data indicated an aliphatic alcohol that was identified as 2-methyl-4-octanol. Both optical isomers were synthesized in five steps by employing commercially available (R)- and (S)-2.2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane-4-methanol as starting material. Enantiomeric resolution by gas chromatography with a chiral column demonstrated that the natural alcohol possessed the S configuration. Preliminary indoor observations suggested that the alcohol elicited aggregation behavior among adults. The same compound has been previously described as an aggregation pheromone in several other curculionid species.
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