Question

The female silkworm moth produces a chemical called bombykol. From the given options find out the category to which this chemical belongs to?
A. Sex hormone
B. An alarm pheromone
C. Sex pheromone
D. Juvenile hormone

Answer 1

Hint:Here, the female silkworm is producing a chemical, and any organism will not invest the energy in the production of any chemical unless it provides some advantage to it.

Complete answer:
Here, it is given that the female silkworm moth is producing a chemical substance named bombykol. We have to find out what type of chemical.
Here, if we say option D. it says juvenile hormone. It is an incorrect option as the chemical is produced in the adult stage so it can not be the juvenile hormone.
If we see option A. Sex hormone then it can also not be a correct option as the sex hormones should be secreted in the juvenile stage also to make the silkworm reproductively compatible but the chemical mentioned in the question is secreted only at the adult stage.
If we look at option B and C. Option C is the correct option as the female silkworm secretes this chemical in very minute quantities to attract the male silkworm for reproduction.
These types of chemicals secreted are called sex pheromones.

Therefore, the correct option is option C. Sex pheromone.

Note: Remember bombykol is not a sex hormone. It is a sex pheromone. Though, both of these seem to be very similar but have a totally different function. The chemical bombykol can attract male silkworm even at a distance of 7km.