Sex Attractant and Aggregation Pheromones of Male Phytophagous Insects

The overwheelming majority of insect species uses sex pheromones to mediate mate finding by way of sexual attraction. Pheromones are chemical signals from one organism that stimulate a response in another individual of the same species. Most sex pheromones stimulate behavior directly related to mating. Generally, this behavior is either attraction to the opposite sex or part of courtship interaction. Sex pheromones that stimulate orientation responses of one sex to the other and serve to bring males and females together for initiation of courtship and mating are referred to here as sex attractants or sex attractant pheromones . Although there is considerable variation in how sex attractant pheromones function in the mate-finding strategies of insects, the norm (and often the expected) involves a sex pheromone produced by the female that is attractive to males. A rather small percentage of sex attractants is produced by males.