Abstract
About one hundred of unsaturated long straight chain compounds (C10-C18) containing a terminal hydroxyl or acetoxyl group were synthesized and their attractiveness to male Lepidoptera were tested in various environments. In this screening test, male insects of ninetythree species which belong to fifteen families were attracted specifically. It was indicated that monoene alcohols and acetates constitute a main group of sex pheromones of the Lepidoptera being native in Japan. Discussions are made on the structure-activity relationship in the attractants and on the chemical structural features of components, which are expected to be present commonly in the certain family, namely, Torticidae, Noctuidae etc.
