Gas chromatography with mass spectrometric and electroantennographic detection: analysis of wood odorants by direct coupling of insect olfaction and mass spectrometry

A gas chromatography–mass spectrometry–electroantennographic detection (GC–MS/EAD) setup has been designed by adapting a commercially available “Olfactory Detector Port” to the use with an insect antenna. Measurements were performed with antennae of the old house borer Hylotrupes bajulus, a widespread insect pest of coniferous timbers. Headspace volatiles from timber of Pinus sylvestris were collected and analysed by GC–MS. About 30 compounds were identified in the Kovacs range from 500 to 1200, especially terpenoids and aliphatic alcohols and aldehydes. The antennae of H. bajulus responded to nearly half of the detected volatiles with a peculiar sensitivity for α-pinene among the terpenes and for hexanal among the aldehydes.