Smoke, pheromone, and kairomone olfactory receptor neurons in males and females of the pine sawyer Monochamus galloprovincialis (Olivier) (Coleoptera:Cerambycidae)

Abstract

The response of antennal olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) of Monochamus galloprovincialis to several odourants was tested using single sensillum electrophysiology. Behaviourally active pheromone, and kairomone (host and sympatric bark beetle pheromone) odours were tested alongside smoke compounds released by burnt wood that are potentially attractive to the insect. The antennae bore several types of sensilla. Two plate areas in the proximal and distal ends of each antennal segment were covered with basiconic sensilla that responded to the odour stimuli. Sensilla basiconica contained one or two cells of different spike amplitude. The 32 male and 38 female ORNs tested responded with excitations or inhibitions to the different plant odours. In general the response of male and female receptors was very similar so they were pooled to perform a cluster analysis on ORN responses. Six ORNs were clearly specialised for pheromone reception. Responses to kairomone and smoke odours were less specific than those of pheromone, but a group of 9 cells was clearly excited by smoke compounds (mainly eugenol and 4-methyl 2-methoxyphenol), a group of 8 cells was very responsive to alpha-pinene, beta-pinene and cis-verbenol, and a group of 14 cells responded to a wider range of compounds. The rest of the cells (47%) were either non-responsive or slightly inhibited by smoke compounds. Dose-response curves were obtained for several compounds. Different compounds induced significantly different latencies and these appeared to be unrelated to their boiling point.

We thank officials at Centro de Sanidad Forestal de Calabazanos, Junta de Castilla y León (Spain), for technical assistance and Sociedad Española de Desarrollos Químicos (SEDQ; Barcelona, Spain) for providing some of the chemicals. This study has been financed through grants RTA2011-00069-C03-03 and AGL2010-17486 by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. B.A. was supported by a Ph.D. fellowship from project AGL2010-17486 to C.G.