Institut für Organische Chemie, TU Braunschweig, Hagenring 30, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany.
Contrary to insects, the chemical communication systems of arachnids and especially spiders, have not received much attention. Vibratory and visual displays are abundant, but some species do use pheromones. Nevertheless, the location of pheromone producing glands and pheromone receptors are not known. The large tropical hunting spider Cupiennius salei (Ctenidae) lives on banana plants. While the courtship is performed on plants using predominantly vibratory signals, it is initiated by a chemical signal present on the silk of unmated adult females. This silk could be collected with a electromotor attached to the silk of the gland. Analysis of extracts of such silk samples by NMR spectroscopy lead to the identification of the pheromone which will be reported. The pheromone receptors could be identified on the pedipalps of the males with the help of synthetic material. Females of the American funnel-web spider, Agelenopsis aperta (Agelenidae), release a pheromone which attracts males and elicits courtship by them. This pheromone was identified by analysis of volatiles collected from individual spiders by a closed loop system. While the pheromone of Cupiennius is of low volatility and direct contact necessary to elicit a response, the Agenelopsis pheromone is highly volatile. Isolation, identification, synthesis, and biotest results will be reported. In both cases analysis of material obtained from single individuals were enough for pheromone identification.