Epicuticle lipids mediate mate recognition in Triatoma infestans (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

COCCHIARARO BASTÍAS L.; MIJAILOVSKY S.; CALDERÓN FERNÁNDEZ G.; LORENZO FIGUEIRAS A.N.; JUÁREZ M.P.

JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL ECOLOGY

SPRINGER

Año: 2011 vol. 37 p. 246 - 252

0098-0331

Insect epicuticle lipids are known to participate in intraspecific chemical communication as contact cues, both in aggregation and sexual behavior. Triatomine bugs are vectors of the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease. In Triatoma infestans, major epicuticle lipid components are hydrocarbons, fatty alcohols, and free and esterified fatty acids. Previously, we have shown that epicuticle lipid extracts, or selected fatty acid components, trigger aggregation and arrestment behavior. In the present study, head space solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) sampling of epicuticle lipid extracts showed no sex dimorphism in epicuticular hydrocarbons but detected female-specific fatty alcohols (eicosanol and docosanol). We evaluated epicuticle lipids role in bug copulation behavior; male mating attempts were quantified in the presence of live females and freeze-killed females, either intact, deprived of their epicuticle lipids, or reconstituted with 1 or 3 female equivalents. We report that hexane-extractable contact cues trigger mate recognition by males. Males contact females with their antennae prior to elicit mating attempts. Freeze-killed females were attractive to males (61% mating attempts); no response was detected when males were exposed to hexane-washed females. The attraction was partially recovered when the epicuticle lipid extract was reloaded on the female dorsal surface. One female equivalent of docosanol, but not eicosanol, evoked similar response.