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Intrinsic Limitations in the Use of Electroantennograms to Bioassay Male Pheromones in Lepidoptera

Abstract

BEHAVIOURAL assays for the male pheromone of Trichoplusia ni (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) are difficult to carry out because the female apparently lacks an overt behavioural response and mating only occurs at night in very dim illumination. Grant used the electroantennogram (EAG) as an assay1, but although this technique has developed into a useful tool to bioassay female sex pheromones in Lepidoptera, it does not seem to be a biologically meaningful approach to this receptor system.

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BIRCH, M. Intrinsic Limitations in the Use of Electroantennograms to Bioassay Male Pheromones in Lepidoptera. Nature 233, 57–58 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/233057a0

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