The red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, is one of the most successful invasive pest ants in the world. We evaluated ylang ylang oil, an essential oil of fragrant yellow flowers of the tree, Cananga odorata, in our effort to search for attractants and repellants for S. invicta management. The results showed that ylang ylang oil elicited clear dose dependent EAG (electroantennography) responses to ants of all castes. We performed EAG on 70 chromatographic fractions from ylang ylang oil. To facilitate the identification of active compounds in each fraction, the fractions which covered strong EAG activity shift were subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, revealing that S. invicta exhibited strong olfactory responses to fractions dominated by terpenes or esters. Further EAG analysis showed that prenyl acetate (PA) and benzyl acetate (BA) were key compounds responsible for high EAG amplitude in male alates. In addition, ylang ylang oil, PA and BA were attractive to male and female alates in two-choice attraction bioassay and they also act as attractants at low concentrations to workers in two-choice digging bioassay. Discovery of these behavior-modifying compounds may open up new possibilities for developing better fire ant control products by manipulating chemosensory communication of ants.

进口的红色火蚁Solenopsis invicta Buren是世界上最成功的入侵性害虫蚂蚁之一。我们评估了依兰依兰油，这是一种芳香的黄色花朵的树香，即Cananga odorata的精油，旨在寻找引诱和驱虫剂来管理S. invicta。结果表明，依兰依兰油对所有种姓的蚂蚁均引起明显的剂量依赖性EAG（电子耳蜗）反应。我们对依兰依兰油中的70种色谱馏分进行了EAG。为了便于鉴定每个馏分中的活性化合物，对覆盖了强烈EAG活性变化的馏分进行了气相色谱-质谱分析，结果表明S. invicta对萜类或酯类主要组分表现出强烈的嗅觉响应。进一步的EAG分析表明，乙酸异戊二烯酯（PA）和乙酸苄酯（BA）是引起雄性阿拉茨高EAG幅度的关键化合物。此外，依兰依兰油，PA和BA在二选吸引生物测定法中对雄性和雌性板岩都具有吸引力，并且在二选挖掘生物测定法中它们也以低浓度吸引着工人。这些行为改变化合物的发现可能为通过操纵蚂蚁的化学感测通信开发更好的火蚁控制产品开辟新的可能性。