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Volatiles Emitted by Calling Males of Burying Beetles and Ptomascopus morio (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorinae) Are Biogenetically Related

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 25 November 2017

This article has been updated

Abstract

In burying beetles, Nicrophorus spp. (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorinae) mate finding is mediated by male produced volatile compounds. To date, pheromone components of only two species have been identified. In an attempt to better understand the evolution of male pheromone signaling in burying beetles, we investigated the male released volatiles of ten Nicrophorus species and one closely related nicrophorine species, Ptomascopus mori. Volatiles emitted by calling males were collected in the laboratory by means of solid phase micro extraction and analyzed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Identified volatiles included short chain esters of 4-methylcarboxylic acids, terpenoids, and some other aliphatic compounds. The long-range volatile signals of the burying beetle species included in this study are blends of two to seven components. We found that methyl or ethyl esters of 4-methylheptanoic acid and 4-methyloctanoic acid are produced by eight of the ten investigated Nicrophorus species. These esters may play a key role in chemical communication. Their widespread occurrence suggests that these compounds did not evolve recently, but appeared relatively early in the phylogeny of the genus. Although Ptomascopus is considered the sister genus of Nicrophorus, P. morio males do not produce any of the Nicrophorus compounds, but release 3-methylalkan-2-ones, which are absent in Nicrophorus. A better understanding of the evolution of burying beetle pheromones, however, will only be possible once more species have been studied.

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Change history

  • 25 November 2017

    The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The name of the main component released by Nicrophorus defodiens in Fig. 1a should read “Fuscumyl acetate”, not “Fuscumol”.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Wittko Francke for valuable comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We also thank Masahiro Kon who kindly provided Ptomascopus morio, Elmar Laubender for support in graphical realization and Eiko Wagenhoff and Tobias Meier for maintaining the beetles in the laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Wolf Haberer & Josef K. Müller

  2. Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Thomas Schmitt

  3. Department of Food Chemistry, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Peter Schreier

  4. School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA

    Anne-Katrin Eggert

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  1. Wolf Haberer
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  2. Thomas Schmitt
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  4. Anne-Katrin Eggert
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  5. Josef K. Müller
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Correspondence to Wolf Haberer.

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A correction to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-017-0907-z.

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Haberer, W., Schmitt, T., Schreier, P. et al. Volatiles Emitted by Calling Males of Burying Beetles and Ptomascopus morio (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorinae) Are Biogenetically Related. J Chem Ecol 43, 971–977 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-017-0892-2

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