Sex pheromone components of fall cankerworm moth, Alsophila pometaria synthesis and field trapping

(Z,Z,Z,E)-3,6,9,11-Nonadecatetraene and (Z,Z,Z,Z)-3,6,9,11-nonadecatetraene, sex pheromone components ofAlsophila pometaria, were synthesized by stereoselective Wittig reactions and found to be spectroscopically and chromatographically identical to isolated natural material. Flight-tunnel bioassays and field-trapping experiments confirmed that the two tetraenes together with (Z,Z,Z)-3,6,9-nonadecatriene are sex pheromone components. While traps baited with either tetraene individually captured conspecific males in field-trapping experiments, addition of the triene, which captured no males by itself, to either tetraene resulted in synergistic responses.