Cuticular lipids containing carbon-carbon double bonds are extremely common in insects; major examples are alkene and alkadiene hydrocarbons. Such compounds oxidize and break down slowly under typical field conditions. One important reaction is cleavage at a double bond to release aldehydes. Thus, heavy, essentially non-volatile cuticular lipids can release smaller, volatile products into the air as the lipids weather. These volatile products sometimes serve as long-range pheromone components, and three examples of this situation from the Hymenoptera will be reviewed.
Keywords: hydrocarbon, modification
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