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The strong attraction elicited by one of the mixture components, methyl 3-methyl-2-butenoate (MMB), was highly female- and hermaphrodite-specific within several\n                    <jats:italic>Caenorhabditis<\/jats:italic>\n                    species, including\n                    <jats:italic>C. remanei<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                    , suggesting that MMB might function as a mimic of an endogenous, male-produced, volatile sex pheromone (VSP) within these species. Here, we report evidence that MMB is produced by\n                    <jats:italic>C. remanei<\/jats:italic>\n                    males at levels that are attractive to\n                    <jats:italic>C. remanei<\/jats:italic>\n                    females and\n                    <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                    hermaphrodites. Notably, MMB production was not detected for\n                    <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                    males; a finding which correlates with behavioral assays for which worm-conditioned media (WCM) prepared from\n                    <jats:italic>C. remanei<\/jats:italic>\n                    , but not from\n                    <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                    adult males is strongly attractive to both\n                    <jats:italic>C. remanei<\/jats:italic>\n                    females and\n                    <jats:italic>C. elegans<\/jats:italic>\n                    hermaphrodites. Our findings establish MMB as the first chemically identified VSP in nematodes and show that\n                    <jats:italic>A. oligospora<\/jats:italic>\n                    exploits a dual strategy of chemical deception\u2014mimicry and eavesdropping\u2014to enhance prey capture.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s42003-026-10575-4","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T07:35:35Z","timestamp":1782891335000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A male-derived volatile sex pheromone in Caenorhabditis nematodes identified through its mimicry by a predator"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Matthew R.","family":"Gronquist","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6165-6340","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xuan","family":"Wan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel","family":"Leighton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuki","family":"Togawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marika","family":"Sagawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7699-0173","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paul W.","family":"Sternberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4420-0237","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Frank C.","family":"Schroeder","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2450-3054","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ryoji","family":"Shinya","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"10575_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev.en.39.010194.001021","volume":"39","author":"K Dettner","year":"1994","unstructured":"Dettner, K. & Liepert, C. 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