ARS | Publication request: LIPID COMPOSITION OF OVERWINTERING ALFALFA LEAFCUTTING BEE PREPUPAE

Submitted to: National Meeting of Entomological Society Of America
Publication Type: Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: July 24, 2002
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Alfalfa leafcutting bees, Megachile rotundata (F.) overwinter as prepupae. The cuticular and internal lipids were extracted from prepupae that had been held at 4 C for eight months. Cuticular lipid components were separated, identified and quantitated by capillary gas chromatography (CGC) and CGC-mass spectrometry (MS). Ester derivatives of fatty acids from internal lipid components were analyzed by CGC-MS and intact components were analyzed by HPLC-MS. Cuticular lipids were composed of homologous series of hydrocarbons (n-alkanes, methyl-branched alkanes), long-chain aldehydes and alcohols, and wax esters. M. rotundata prepupae possessed large quantities of internal lipids that were extracted with CHCl3/methanol (2:1), and separated into neutral lipids and phospholipid classes by silica gel chromatography. The majority of the internal lipids were triacylglycerols with mainly unsaturated fatty acid components.