Attractiveness of alkylamines and aminoalcohols related to the aggregation attractant pheromone of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.) (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae)

Abstract

Alkylamines, aminoalcohols, and alcohols related to the aggregation attractant pheromone of the German cockroach were examined for their attractiveness to nymphs by using a linear track olfactometer. Free amines and aminoalcohols, which were too volatile to be retained on a dispenser, were continuously applied as aqueous solution onto the air-intake of the olfactometer, and amine hydrochlorides were dispensed on metal disks as dry material to simulate the natural condition where the attractant amines occur as salt. All the examined C1-C6 alkylamines including primary, secondary and tertiary amines represented both chemotaxis and anemotaxis, potencies of which were evaluated as ED50 by probit analysis. The potencies of free amines were almost the same: chemotaxis ranged from 0.56 nmol/min of trimethylamine to 4.1 nmol/min of pyrrolidine, whereas those of hydrochlorides were separated into moderately active primary and more active secondary and tertiary amine hydrochlorides. In the aminoalcohols structurally related to the principal pheromonal component 1-dimethylamino-2-methyl-2-propanol, 1-dimethylamino-2-propanol was the most potent at 0.098 nmol/min.