The composition of the free fatty acids from Dendrolimus pini exuviae

The pine moth Dendrolimus pini effectively resists many insecticides, but it can be controlled by the use of bioinsecticides such as entomopathogenic fungi. In the use of microbial agents for the biocontrol of D. pini, it is important to identify the cuticular lipids of this pest if we are to understand the factors responsible for the preferential adhesion or selective repulsion of entomopathogenic fungi that are potentially useful in biocontrol. In this work the qualitative and quantitative analyses of free fatty acids in two exuviae extracts (petroleum ether and dichloromethane) and two developmental stages (larval–larval and larval–pupal molts) were studied. The free fatty acid composition of the epicuticular lipids from exuviae of D. pini was characterized chemically using gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography–electron impact mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Structural analyses of the dichloromethane extracts from larval–larval exuviae (LLE) and larval–pupal exuviae (LPE) revealed that the carbon numbers for the major acid moieties ranged from C8:0 to C34:0. Only C23:0 was not identified in the LPE extract. The relative contents of fatty acids in the extracts varied from trace amounts to 34%. The fatty acids extracted by dichloromethane were essentially the same as those in the petroleum ether extract. We also identified dehydroabietic acid in the exuviae of D. pini. The respective quantities of dehydroabietic acid obtained from D. pini LLE and LPE were 1763 ± 103 μg/g exuviae and 11521 ± 1198 μg/g of exuviae.