ABSTRACT
Sex pheromones are secreted by one sex to attract the other as an initial part of the mating process or to elicit responses of precopulatory and mating behavior. The pheromonal behavior response may be due to an individual substance, or, as is often the case, to a mixture of chemicals. In some species, particularly among beetles (Coleoptera), the pheromones may be secreted by one or by both sexes and may also attract both sexes and therefore serve more than one function. Numerous methods of fractionation and purification have been used in the structure elucidation of pheromones. Due to the small amount of material available chromatographic techniques are the methods of choice. The most frequently used analytical technique in pheromone chemistry and analysis of natural products is mass spectroscopy. The chapter provides an information on the physical properties such as melting and boiling points of the compounds, the elementary composition, the molecular weight, the refractive index, and literature references.
