Tuesday, October 13, 2020

2021 Field Trails: Ready & Waiting

Well it has certainly been a while since I have posted anything here. Irrespective of this, much Apatura science has continued in the background and after 6 years of quite intensive science and investigation, I think we are finally ready to go live with Apatura attraction field trails next summer. I have now analysed Limburger and Pálpusztai cheeses, as well as Belachan and Shito pastes. I have also re-analysed Matthew and Niel’s Pantainorasingh plus Monika tiny shrimp mixture all by Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) Gas-Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The volatile analysis has identified one compound that is consistently present in all of these samples. The relative peaks relevant to this compound have been high-lighted with an anterisk (*). In addition to being found in these samples, the compound in question has also been confirmed to be present in all other known Apatura attractants inclusive of Dung (predominantly carnivore), Carcasses, Human skin volatiles, Cigarette smoke and Petrol fumes. The appropriate compound can also easily be explained in relation to the attraction of Apatura specimens which have been photographed clustered around the remains of a dead Rana frog. As predicted, the compound in question is a degradation product of a Branched Chain Amino Acid (BCAA), which have been confirmed to be readily incorporated into the male specific centrally methylated pheromone compound. As such, the males are being directly attracted to the site(s) of what they specifically need in order to produce their male specific pheromone. All I need to do now however is to wait until next summer in order to perform the field trials. It is going to be a long winter.

8 comments:

Peter Eeles said...

Hi Mark - I think I actually understand this post ... although you neglected hydraulic fluid :) Seriously - this is fascinating stuff, and look forward to hearing of your results on the ultimate engineered 'scat' that you can concoct :)

Cheers,

- Pete

irisscientist said...

Thanks for this Pete, a new one for me. Do you perhaps have a reference for the fluid attraction? Having just had a quick look there appears to a lot of differing 'types' of hydraulic fluid and it would help to know which type(s) work. Once I know this I can do some further investigations. BTW, these are not engineered attractants, rather pure/specific compounds. Each peak on the graphs corresponding to a certain compound.

irisscientist said...

Wiki would confirm that Mineral Oil is a " colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum". As a consequence this would therefore relate to the "Petrol fumes" attractant that have already been mentioned :-)

Peter Eeles said...

Hi Mark - this was mentioned to me by a friend, which I included in my book. I doubt he'd be able to tell you the specific fluid since it wasn't from his vehicle!

Brian Hicks said...

Very interesting, in all probability my old cammo jacket must have had a small amount of these compounds ingrained in it (my wife said it stank and consigned it to the bin!) and I just thought HIM was being friendly!

dennis said...

Resonates particularly for me: I was an analytical chemist in the pharma industry and used coupled MS- chromatography techniques for drug analysis.
Good luck in isolating/synthesizing this active component. Can't wait for the results of your field trials.
In which institute are you employed by the way?
Dennis

irisscientist said...

Many thanks for your comment Dennis. I've sent you an email. I look forward to reading any further comments you wish to make.

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