Abstract
When tobacco hornworm moths (Manduca sexta) are tested in a wind tunnel with a source of female pheromones upwind, males but not normal females show pheromone-modulated anemotaxis and a characteristic mate-seeking behavioural sequence1–7. These behaviours are produced by stimulation of sensory neurones found only in male antennae8–10. These neurones project axons only to dendrites of pheromone-specific interneurones11,12 in the macroglomerular complex, a region of neuropil in the antennal lobe characteristic of males but not present in normal females13–15. Some interneurones in the antennal lobes of female moths that have received grafts of male antennae (gynandromorphs) respond postsynaptically to stimulation with bombykal, a major component of the pheromone16. They branch into a region resembling the macroglomerular complex16, like their counterparts in normal males. We show here that gynandromorphic females respond to pheromonal stimulation with anemotaxis. We also find that normal females display a similar sequence in response to the odour of their egg-laying site, the tobacco plant. It is likely that a common motor path is used either by pheromone-specific interneurones in the antennal lobes of males or by tobacco-specific interneurones in females. We assume that the interneurones in gynandromorphic females that branch into the macroglomerular complex induced by a grafted male antenna can activate this pathway.
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Schneiderman, A., Hildebrand, J., Brennan, M. et al. Trans-sexually grafted antennae alter pheromone-directed behaviour in a moth. Nature 323, 801–803 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/323801a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/323801a0
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