The invention disclosed relates to the detection of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptra: B-prestidae) and in particular to the use of contact sex phenomones therefor. Analyses of the elytral hydrocarbons from male and female emerald ash borer, that were freshly emerged vs. sexually mature (10 days old) revealed a female-specific compound, 9-methyl-pentacosane (9-Me-C25), only present in sexually mature females. This material was synthesized by the Wittig reaction of 2-decanone with (n-hexadecyl)-triphenylphosphonium bromide followed by catalytic reduction to yield racemic 9-Me C25, which matched the natural compound by GC/MS (retention time and EI-mass spectrum). In field bioassays with freeze-killed sexually mature A. planipennis females, feral males spent significantly more time in contact and attempting copulation with unwashed females than with females that had been washed in n-hexane to remove the cuticular hydrocarbons. Hexane-washed females to which 9-Me-C25 had been reapplied elicited similar contact time and percentage of time attempting copulation as unwashed females, indicating that 9-methyl-pentacosane is a contact sex-pheromone component of A. planipennis. This is the first contact sex pheromone identified in the Buprestidae.
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