Cuticular Hydrocarbons of Orchid Bees Males: Interspecific and Chemotaxonomy Variation

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 12; p. e0145070
• Main Authors: Dos Santos, Aline Borba, do Nascimento, Fábio Santos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 29-12-2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal behavior; Animals; Apidae; Bees; Bees - chemistry; Bees - classification; Chemotaxonomy; Cuticle; Cuticular hydrocarbons; Euglossa viridissima; Euglossini; Eulaema; Genera; Hydrocarbons; Hydrocarbons - chemistry; Hymenoptera; Identification; Insects; Interspecific; Lipids; Male; Males; Morphology; Pheromones; Phylogeny; Species; Species Specificity; Statistical analysis; Taxonomy; Brazil
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0145070

Recent studies have investigated the composition of compounds that cover the cuticle in social insects, but few studies have focused on solitary bees. Cuticular hydrocarbons may provide a tool for chemotaxonomy, and perhaps they can be used as a complement to morphology and genetic characters in phylogenetic studies. Orchid bees (Tribe Euglossini) are a highly diverse group of Neotropical bees with more than 200 species. Here, the cuticular hydrocarbons of 17 species were identified and statistical analysis revealed 108 compounds, which allowed for the taxonomic classification according to the genera. The most significant compounds discriminating the four genera were (Z)-9-pentacosene, (Z,Z)-pentatriacontene-3, (Z)-9-tricosene, and (Z)-9-heptacosene. The analyses demonstrated the potential use of CHCs to identify different species.