Abstract:

Brazil is one of the major soybean producers in the world. In the piercing-sucking complex that occurs in soybean crops, Edessa meditabunda is considered a secondary pest. Recent studies from our research group showed the presence of two male-specific compounds which were EAD active in females. Analysis of GC-MS and GC-FTIR spectra of these compounds suggested that they were both methyl branched long chain methyl esters. The methyl ester structures were proposed based on the mass spectra (EI) of the respective hydrocarbons obtained by microderivatizations, as being methyl 4,8,12- trimethylpentadecanoate (1) (major) and methyl 4,8,12-trimethyltetradecanoate (minor) (2).