Insect Pheromone Research : New Directions

Eighty participants from 17 countries attended the symposium, which turned out to be a unique forum for the exchange of the latest worldwide findings on insect pheromones, an opportunity to discuss and debate unsettled issues, and a mechanism to define new directions in pheromone research and foster interdisciplinary collaborations.

This book contains the proceedings of the "First International Symposium on Insect Pheromones," which was held at Wageningen, The Netherlands, from March 6 to March 11, 1994. Eighty participants from 17 countries attended the symposium, which turned out to be a unique forum for the exchange of the latest worldwide findings on insect pheromones, an opportunity to discuss and debate unsettled issues, and a mechanism to define new directions in pheromone research and foster interdisciplinary collaborations. The meeting comprised five sessions representing the breadth of disciplinary interest in pheromones, a typical charac­ teristic of this research area. In the sessions the following topics were presented: (1) control of pheromone production (organized by W. L. Roelofs), (2) sensory processing of pheromone signals (T. L. Payne), (3) neuroethology of pheromone­ mediated responses (T. C. Baker), (4) use of pheromones in direct control (A. K. Minks and R. T. Card6), and (5) evolution of pheromone communication (c. LOfstedt). All sessions started with a series of 30-minute lectures, after which ample time was reserved for discussion. In each session some participants were asked to serve as discussants and to initiate and stimulate discussion, and a rapporteur was recruited to make notes of these discussions and to summarize the general trends emerging from the session. The general program­ ming of the symposium was in the hands of R. T. Carde, A. K. Minks, and T. L. Payne.