Pesticide alternatives for crop protection has focused on luring males into traps using female sex pheromones to keep populations of pests under control.

The sex pheromones of the lesser date moth has now been identified and the active components demonstrated as bait for male moths. The key component, (4Z,7Z)-4,7-decadien-1-yl acetate, and 5Z-decen-1-yl acetate, were identified by sequential SPME auto-sampling. The researchers explain that this is the first pheromone from Batrachedridae species to be identified and the key ingredient is a novel molecular structure among moth sex pheromones.

• Identification of the sex pheromone of the lesser date moth, Batrachedra amydraula, using sequential SPME  auto-sampling,
  Anat Levi-Zada, Daniela Fefer, Leonid Anshelevitch, Anna Litovsky, Marie Bengtsson, Galina Gindin, Victoria Soroker,
  Tetrahedron Lett. 2011.
  DOI: 10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.06.091