Elicitors of tansy volatiles from cotton leafworm larval oral secretion.

The feeding of Spodoptera littoralis and Autographa gamma caterpillars on tansy leaves led to a complete different release of volatile monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and hexenyl alkanoates. Volatiles were collected from S. littoralis and A. gamma larvae damaged, mechanically wounded, and excised tansy leaves by closed loop stripping analysis. The qualitative and quantitative determination of the volatiles were done by GC-MS- and GC-measurements. The oligosaccharides sucrose, raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose have been detected in oral secretion of the caterpillars of the cotton leafworm S. littoralis. When applied to damaged leaves of tansy plants, these oligosaccharides induce the tansy leaves to emit a similar volatile blend as the feeding of S. littoralis larvae.