Pheromone component patterns of moth evolution revealed by computer analysis of the Pherolist

1. The Pherolist internet site listing moth sex pheromone components reported in the literature was downloaded and processed by a basic program into a database with 2931 combinations of 377 unique chemical names of sex pheromone attractants used by 1572 moth species in 619 genera and 49 families. Names of pheromone compounds were analysed for aliphatic chain length, unsaturation position, geometric configuration, functional group (aldehyde, alcohol, acetate, epoxide, methyl-branched and hydrocarbon) and number of instances such combinations are used by species and families. 2. The analyses revealed pheromone blends of species ranged from one to eight components (45% species with one component, 36% two, 12% three, 5% four, 1% five, < or = 0·5% for > or = six). The numbers of different components of various chain lengths and functional groups, the numbers of instances such compounds are used by species and the numbers of species using such compounds are presented. 3. The average number of pheromone components per species increased as the number of species in a family increased based on linear regression of components in the 10 largest families, with species numbers ranging from 19 to 461. Pooling the four largest families gave a mean of 1·96 components per species that was significantly greater than the mean of the next 14 smaller families (1·63). Because related species in a large family would need more communication channels, this suggests that these species on average evolved to produce and detect more components in their pheromone blends to achieve a unique communication channel than was needed by species in smaller families. 4. Speciation in moths would entail evolutionary changes in both pheromone biosynthetic and sensory systems that avoided competition for communication channels of existing species. Regression analysis indicated that the more species in a family the more unique pheromone components, but the increase diminishes progressively. This suggests that, as the number of components increases with species number in a family, new species are more likely to evolve a unique blend comprising a communication channel from among existing components of the family.