ABSTRACT
Cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) are constituents of the epicuticle of insects, which have the function of preventing dehydration and are signs of inter- and intraspecific recognition. Because CHCs vary between species and according to adulthood, sex, and mating status, they have been studied in species of economic importance such as Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann, C. anonae Graham, C. rosa Karsch, and Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann as an effective means of taxonomic identification. However, there are no studies of its intervention in chemical communication, and they have not been studied in Anastrepha curvicauda Gerstaecker, an insect pest of Carica papaya Linnaeus. In this work, we studied the CHC profile of virgin males and females of different ages of A. curvicauda. The extraction was done with hexane and was injected into a gas chromatograph coupled with a mass spectrometer. The identification of compounds was performed considering retention times, retention index, and spectral evaluation through a comparison with the NIST mass spectra library. The CHC profile of A. curvicauda consists of long chains of 20–29 carbons, and four major compounds were identified: 2-methyloctacosane, 1-heptacosanol, (Z)-14-tricosenyl formate, and a (Z)-14-tricosenyl formate isomer. 1-heptacosanol was the main compound in females and (Z)-14-tricosenyl formate in males. 1-heptacosanol in females increased in abundance at 5–7 days, a period that coincides with their sexual maturity. The obtained CHC profile is specific to this species. The compounds are sex-specific, too, and their differences are apparent at 7 days of age when abundance is higher in females than males.
