Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Phytochemical diversity of insect defenses in tropical and temperate plant families
- 2 Recruitment of predators and parasitoids by herbivore-injured plants
- 3 Chemical ecology of astigmatid mites
- 4 Semiochemistry of spiders
- 5 Why do flowers smell? The chemical ecology of fragrance-driven pollination
- 6 Sex pheromones of cockroaches
- 7 A quest for alkaloids: the curious relationship between tiger moths and plants containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids
- 8 Structure of the pheromone communication channel in moths
- Index
- References
3 - Chemical ecology of astigmatid mites
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Phytochemical diversity of insect defenses in tropical and temperate plant families
- 2 Recruitment of predators and parasitoids by herbivore-injured plants
- 3 Chemical ecology of astigmatid mites
- 4 Semiochemistry of spiders
- 5 Why do flowers smell? The chemical ecology of fragrance-driven pollination
- 6 Sex pheromones of cockroaches
- 7 A quest for alkaloids: the curious relationship between tiger moths and plants containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids
- 8 Structure of the pheromone communication channel in moths
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Astigmatid mites form a suborder of the Acari, in the class Arachnida. Adult astigmatid mites are mostly oval or rod-like, less than 1 mm in length, and are opaque or transparent. Some species are economically important pests that attack a wide range of stored products and agricultural crops in fields and greenhouses. Others are common components of “house dust” and may contribute to health problems, causing atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma. Most species, together with species in the suborder Oribatida, also function as scavengers of organic debris.
Pheromonal communication appears widespread among astigmatid mites. To date, the structures of 88 compounds, consisting of 26 monoterpenes, two sesquiterpenes, eight aromatic compounds, four aldehydes, a ketone, two novel fatty acids, a novel alkyl formate, and 14 fatty acid esters, have been conclusively identified from a total of 61 species of astigmatid mites belonging to 10 families, including 29 species that have not yet been formally described. Those unidentified species have been deduced to the genus level and are listed by the genus name with isolate names in parentheses, if necessary, such as Histiostoma sp. “shisetsu.” Many of the compounds are found in a number of different species, in which they may have different behavioral roles. For example, compounds that function as alarm pheromones in 19 species also form part of the aggregation pheromone blend in four species, and the sex pheromone in 14 species.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Advances in Insect Chemical Ecology , pp. 76 - 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
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