Analyses of lepidopteran sex pheromones by mass spectrometry

Lepidoptera, including about 150,000 species in the world, comprise the second largest insect group, and sex pheromones have been identified from virgin female moths of more than 600 species. The chemical structures are simple, but diverse, because species-specific pheromones play an important role in the reproductive isolation of each species. The pheromone content in each female is quite low, and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is most frequently utilized to reveal the chemical structure. Almost all pheromone components are straight-chain compounds and are classified into two major groups [i.e. unsaturated C10–C18 fatty alcohols and their derivatives (Type I) and C17–C23 polyenyl hydrocarbons and their epoxides (Type II)]. In addition to the unbranched compounds, some species secrete methyl-branched compounds (e.g., 2-ketones). For the identification of these compounds, determining the positions of the double bond, the epoxy ring, and the methyl group is an important key step. Copious spectral information measured by electron-impact ionization (70 eV) has been accumulated for these compounds. This review therefore deals with their spectral characteristics, namely, diagnostic ions, to apply them to pheromone studies on new target insects.