HYDROCARBONS OF NASUTITERMES-ACAJUTLAE AND COMPARISON OF METHODOLOGIES FOR SAMPLING CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS OF CARIBBEAN TERMITES FOR TAXONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL-STUDIES

Citation
Mi. Haverty et al., HYDROCARBONS OF NASUTITERMES-ACAJUTLAE AND COMPARISON OF METHODOLOGIES FOR SAMPLING CUTICULAR HYDROCARBONS OF CARIBBEAN TERMITES FOR TAXONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL-STUDIES, Journal of chemical ecology, 22(11), 1996, pp. 2081-2109
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Ecology,Biology
Journal title
ISSN journal
00980331
Volume
22
Issue
11
Year of publication
1996
Pages
2081 - 2109
Database
ISI
SICI code
0098-0331(1996)22:11<2081:HONACO>2.0.ZU;2-Q
Abstract
Using data from the arboreal nesting Nasutitermes acajutlae (Holmgren) , we propose standard collection and extraction methodology for charac terization of cuticular hydrocarbons of termites under field condition s in the tropics. Specifically, we evaluated: (1) the effect of the du ration and the number of extractions; (2) the effect of drying termite s before extraction; (3) the effect of sample size; (4) the effect of solvents (ethanol versus hexane) on cuticular hydrocarbon profiles. Ol efins comprise ca. 70% of the cuticular hydrocarbons of N. acajutlae. Hydrocarbons consist of two distinct groups: early-eluting components, primarily n-alkanes and methyl-branched alkanes, and late-eluting com pounds, which consist almost exclusively of unsaturated components wit h one to six double bonds. Soldiers have more early-eluting compounds than workers or alates. Nests from the same island had qualitatively s imilar, but quantitatively dissimilar hydrocarbon mixtures. Brief extr actions of 300 live workers in 10 mi of hexane for only 20 sec produce d a hydrocarbon mixture equivalent to a 10-min extraction. Long-term e xtraction of 300 workers in hexane for two years resulted in different mixtures of hydrocarbons. Drying workers tended to enhance extraction of the less abundant unsaturated compounds such as C-41:4, and C-41:5 . A single extraction of a minimum of 100 workers (live or dried), wit h hexane for 20 sec to 10 min is best; these extraction regimes result ed in mixtures of hydrocarbons that are quantitatively very similar. F or quantitative comparisons, extracts from dried samples should not he compared to those from live samples. Storage in ethanol caused numero us unidentified, nonhydrocarbon compounds to he extracted either from the cuticle or from internal tissues.