Chemical analysis of oxygenated homosesquiterpenes: a putative sex pheromone from Lutzomyia lichyi (Diptera : Psychodidae)

Lutzomyia lichyi (Floch & Abbonenc) is a suggested secondary vector of Leis hmania in Colombia. Taxonomically, L, lichyi is very closely related to the L. longipalpis (Lutz & Neiva) species complex. Male members of the complex can be distinguished by their sex pheromones which are produced in papules found grouped together in pale patches on tergites 3 or tergites 3 and 4. Male L. lichyi also have papules, very similar in appearance to those of th e L. longipalpis species complex but distributed on tergites 4, 5, 6 and 7. Chemical analysis of male L. lichyi hexane extracts has revealed the prese nce of two novel oxygenated methylsesquiterpenes. The two major oxygenated terpenes found in the extract of L. lichyi males are tentatively characteri zed as a primary and tertiary alcohol. The mass spectrum of the proposed pr imary alcohol is very similar to the published mass spectrum of 3-methyl-al pha-himachalene, the sex pheromone produced by the Jacobina chemotype of th e L. longipalpis complex. The mass spectrum of the proposed tertiary alcoho l also has similarities to the 3-methyl-a-himachalene sex pheromone.