Female calling behaviour in the Asian longhorned beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Abstract

Female Asian longhorned beetles, Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), were observed rhythmically extruding their genitalia, resembling the calling behaviour observed in other species of Cerambycidae. We demonstrate that only female A. glabripennis adults perform this behaviour, which lasts up to nearly six minutes and typically includes two types: (1) extrusion of only the tip of genitalia and (2) genitalia fully extruded and deflexed. The frequency and duration of this behaviour are affected by temperature and posteclosion feeding experience, but do not vary with the female age. Anoplophora glabripennis adult males were observed flexing their abdomen downward while extruding their genitalia but only when exposed to the odour of live females with host twigs. In Y-tube olfactometer assays, the volatiles from live females or female genital extracts both attracted more males than the volatiles from live males, male genital extracts, or solvent controls, all in the presence of host-plant volatiles. These findings indicate that A. glabripennis females may produce volatile sexual attractants in association with genital extrusion.

Mating and adult feeding behaviour influence pheromone production in female Asian longhorn beetle Anoplophora glabripennis (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

“…The portion of the genitalia to be extracted was determined by observing female calling behaviour. Female ALB were frozen at −20 ∘ C. The genitalia were then grasped and pulled out from the abdomen with clean forceps and the tip section (∼ 5 mm long; no gut or fat body) was immediately excised with clean microdissection scissors (Xu et al, 2019(Xu et al, , 2020. Ten excised genitalia were extracted in 500 μL dichloromethane (DCM) in a 2.0 mL amber glass vial for 24 h. Extracts were then concentrated to 100 μL under a nitrogen stream.…”

Genome-Wide Identification of the Odorant Receptor Gene Family and Revealing Key Genes Involved in Sexual Communication in Anoplophora glabripennis

“…Previous electrophysiological and behavioral studies have reported that the volatiles released by the host plants of A. glabripennis include terpenes, alcohols, aldehydes, and acetates. The A. glabripennis male aggregation pheromones are mainly comprised of two hydroxyl ethers, and the female contact pheromones include five unsaturated long-chain hydrocarbons [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Attractant mixtures containing host plant volatiles and male aggregation pheromones have been used to trap A. glabripennis in forests, but with little success [ 47 ].…”