Identification of the white peach scale sex pheromone - An illustration of micro techniques

Micro techniques were used to obtain spectroscopic and degradative information from less than 5μg of the sex attractant of female white peach scale, Pseudaulascaspis pentagons (Targioni-Tozzetti) isolated from airborne collections. The pheromone was identified as (Z)-3,9-dimethyl-6-isopropenyl-3,9-decadien-1-ol propionate. Both enantiomers of the Z isomer and also the enantiomers of the E isomer were prepared from (R)-or (S)-limonene. Bioassays of material with minimum enantiomeric purity of 95% showed that at extreme dilution only the R,Z isomer attracted male white peach scale; however activity of the S,Z enantiomer could not be completely excluded.