Morphological, chemical and electrophysiological investigations of Telchin licus (Lepidoptera: Castniidae)

The giant sugarcane borer Telchin licus (Drury, 1773) (Lepidoptera: Castniidae) is a day-flying moth pest of sugarcane, pineapples and bananas. To better understand the chemical communication in this species, we examined the morphology of its olfactory system and the chemical composition of its body parts. The ventral surface of the clubbed antennae of T. licus has six morphological types of sensilla: sensilla trichodea, basiconica, chaetica, squamiforma, coeloconica, and auricillica. The telescopic ovipositor shows no evidence of a sexual gland, or female-specific compounds. On the other hand, the midleg basitarsus of males releases (E,Z)-2,13-octadecadienol and (Z,E)-2,13-octadecadienol, which are electroantennographically active in both sexes. These compounds are known female sex pheromones in the Sesiidae family and are male-specific compounds in another castniid moth, although further investigations are necessary to elucidate their ecological role in the Castniidae family.

巨甘蔗螟虫Telchin licus（Drury, 1773）（鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）：辉蛾科（Castniidae））是一种危害甘蔗、菠萝与香蕉的昼行性蛾类害虫。为深入解析该物种的化学通讯机制，本研究对其嗅觉系统形态及躯体部位的化学组成展开了探究。该物种棒状触角的腹面存在6类形态各异的感器：毛形感器（sensilla trichodea）、锥形感器（sensilla basiconica）、刺形感器（sensilla chaetica）、鳞形感器（sensilla squamiforma）、腔锥形感器（sensilla coeloconica）以及耳形感器（sensilla auricillica）。其伸缩式产卵器未检测到性腺或雌性特异性化合物的存在。与之相对，雄性中足基跗节可释放（E,Z）-2,13-十八碳二烯醇与（Z,E）-2,13-十八碳二烯醇，这两种化合物在雌雄两性中均表现出触角电位活性。此类化合物在透翅蛾科（Sesiidae）中被认定为雌性性信息素，而在另一种辉蛾科蛾类中则为雄性特异性化合物，不过仍需开展进一步研究以阐明其在辉蛾科类群中的生态功能。