Longhorned beetles use timing to find mates

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

For us humans, meeting that special someone often comes down to timing, and it turns out – the same goes for longhorned beetle.

According to a new study published in the Journal of Chemical Ecology, male longhorned beetles from various species time the release of their mating pheromones at different times during the day or year to minimize sending mixed signals to female beetles.

“We found that beetles that produce the same pheromone are active at different times of day — and that beetles that are active at the same time of day produce different pheromones,” study author Robert F. Mitchell, an insect researcher at the University of Arizona, said in a press release.

“Smell is an underappreciated sense in people — but when you talk about insects, many ‘see’ their world in chemicals,” Mitchell added. “The most common thing they say with pheromones is, ‘I’m looking for a mate.’”

Avoiding awkward situations

With numerous species in the larger family of longhorned beetles using the same pheromones, things could get quite embarrassing if a female from one species shows up to mate with a male from another species. That scenario also reduces efficiency when it comes to reproduction.

In the study, researchers analyzed pheromones for dozens of varieties of longhorned beetles indigenous to deciduous forests of eastern Canada and the US, where they bore in the woody stalks of lifeless shrubs and trees.

After narrowing down their study to 11 species that all used the same pheromone, researchers put pheromone-baited traps in the woods for 24 hours, and when they came back, the traps contained “a big multi-species party.”

“We asked, ‘How do they tell each other apart if they’re all producing the same thing?’”

Next, the team used a rotating trap that could separate beetles according to the time of day they entered. The team saw that some species came in the daytime, some came in the afternoon and some came at night. The team followed-up on this find by conducting experiments showing the 11 species also looking for mates at different times in the spring.

The study team noted that their work could have a wide range of applications, including in pest control and combating invasive beetle species.

“Pheromones are promising alternatives to pesticides as a means of monitoring and controlling pests,” Mitchell said.

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113399756/longhorned-beetles-use-cologne-to-find-mates-052915/