Sex pheromones are released by adults of a species to elicit a sexual interaction with the other sex of the same species. Here we report an unexpected effect of a moth sex pheromone on the caterpillars of the same species. We demonstrate that larvae of the cotton leafworm Spodoptera littoralis are attracted by the moth sex pheromone and that this phenomenon is independent of sex determination. In addition, we show that the olfactory sensilla carried by the caterpillar antennae are sensitive to the pheromone and that the caterpillar sensilla express pheromone-binding proteins that are used by adult antennae to bind pheromone components. Finally, we demonstrate that the larvae are preferentially attracted to a food source when it contains the sex pheromone main component. A possible interpretation of these results is that the sex pheromone is used to promote food search in caterpillars, opening potential new routes for insect pest management.

The physiological and developmental effects of harmine, a β-carboline alkaloid, on the insect pest Plodia interpunctella have been analyzed. When added at the larval diet, harmine induced a strong reduction of larvae weight, cannibalism between larvae, in addition to significant mortality. On the other hand, it caused a remarkable development disruption, manifested by both delay and reduction of pupation and adult emergence. Using spectrophotometric assays, we have shown that harmine ingestion provoked a severe reduction in protein, glycogen and lipid contents. Beside, when larvae fed harmine, the activity of the digestive enzyme α-amylase was strongly reduced. In conclusion, our experiments clearly show the susceptibility of P. interpunctella to harmine ingestion revealing the potent bioinsecticidal effect of harmine.

In Lepidoptera, the behavior of caterpillars to plant odors is poorly known. However, caterpillars are equipped with a reduced number of olfactory sensilla (3 on the antenna and 4-5 on the maxillary palps) which they can use to make fine discrimination between complex plant odors. In this work, we characterized behavioral responses of Spodoptera littoralis larvae to 11 odorants found in plants using binary choices in a Petri dish assay. In this assay, 1-hexanol, hexanal and cis-jasmone elicited a dose-dependent attraction, camphene and eugenol were repellent, while the response to other odorants were less marked. We recorded the electrophysiological responses to 5 of these odors from olfactory neurons of sensillum B2 of the antenna. Several neurons from this sensillum responded to each of the chemicals tested by an increase of their firing activity on top of a high background activity, suggesting that olfactory neurons of caterpillars is broadly tuned to a range of odorants rather than being specialized to a few molecules.