Chemical Defenses of Arthropods

1st Edition - January 28, 1981
Author: Murry Blum
Language: English
eBook ISBN:
9 7 8 - 0 - 3 2 3 - 1 4 5 5 5 - 8

Chemical Defenses of Arthropods charts the significant progress in the study of chemical defenses in arthropods, a rapidly expanding area of chemical ecology. The book groups the… Read more

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Chemical Defenses of Arthropods charts the significant progress in the study of chemical defenses in arthropods, a rapidly expanding area of chemical ecology. The book groups the defensive compounds secreted by arthropods based on their main functionalities and sequentially lists them according to their carbon numbers. Organized into 19 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the defensive exudates of arthropods and how arthropods have exploited these compounds to deter the ubiquitous and omnipresent predators around them. The next chapters introduce the reader to the defensive compounds produced in the exocrine glands of arthropods, ranging from alcohols and ketones to hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, esters, 1,4-quinones and hydroquinones, lactones, phenols, steroids, and proteinaceous venoms. The book also discusses the taxonomic value of arthropod defensive compounds, with emphasis on factors affecting the composition of defensive secretions and taxonomic correlations that utilize them. Later chapters focus on arthropod biosynthesis of exocrine compounds, how insects tolerate the presence of plant toxins in their diets, and identified defensive compounds in arthropods. The book concludes with an analysis of the properties and characteristic distributions of arthropod natural products, along with their adaptiveness as defensive agents. This book is a valuable resource for biologists and chemists.

Preface

1 The Many Faces of Defensive Secretions

I. Varied Sources of Defensive Exudates

II. Conservation of Secretion

III. Regeneration of Secretory Constituents

IV. Two-Phase Secretions

V. Minor Secretory Components

VI. Autodetoxication of Defensive Compounds

Part I The Chemistry of Defensive Secretions

Introduction

2 Hydrocarbons

An Overview

3 Alcohols

An Overview

4 Aldehydes

An Overview

5 Ketones

An Overview

6 Carboxylic Acids

An Overview

7 1,4-Quinones and Hydroquinones

An Overview

8 Esters

An Overview

9 Lactones

An Overview

10 Phenols

An Overview

11 Steroids

An Overview

12 Miscellaneous Compounds

An Overview

13 Nonexocrine Defensive Compounds of Arthropod Origin

An Overview

14 Proteinaceous Venoms

I. Scorpion Venoms

II. Spider Venoms

III. Centipede Venoms

IV. Insect Venoms

V. An Overview

Part II Chemical Defenses of Arthropods in Perspective

15 Defensive Compounds and Arthropod Taxonomy

I. Factors Affecting Composition of Defensive Secretions

II. Taxonomic Correlations Utilizing Defensive Compounds

III. The Expanding Utilization of Defensive Compounds as Diagnostic Indicators

16 Biosynthesis of Defensive Compounds

I. Biogenesis

II. Suggestive Biosynthetic Interrelationships

17 Insects and Toxic Plants

I. Detoxication or Selective Elimination of Toxic Natural Products

II. Sequestration of Plant Natural Products in Nonsecretory Structures

III. Sequestration of Plant Natural Products in Secretory Structures

IV. Relationship of Insects to Toxic Plants—An Overview

18 Recently Identified Defensive Compounds

I. Lactones

II. Quinones

III. Phenols

IV. Ketones

V. Alcohols

VI. Acids

VII. Aldehydes

VIII. Esters

IX. Hydrocarbons

X. Miscellaneous Compounds in Arthropod Secretions

XI. Steroids

XII. Nonproteinaceous Constituents in Arthropod Venoms

XIII. Nonexocrine Defensive Compounds of Arthropod Origin

19 Arthropod Defensive Compounds

I. An Overview

II. Defensive Allomones as Pheromones or Cryptic "Pheromones"

III. Modes of Action of Defensive Allomones

IV. Selected Arthropods as Natural Products Chemists Par Excellence

V. The Largely Unexplored Defensive Allomone Chemistry of the Arthropoda

References

Empirical Formula Index

Animal and Plant Index

Subject Index