Co-author on a new paper on airborne chemical secretions from Mupli beetles

by | Jun 12, 2026

I was fortunate to act as an informal PhD co-supervisor on Sajidha Mohammed’s project on the Mupli beetle (Luprops tristis) as an indoor pest in India. She has now successfully completed her PhD and the second paper arising from her project has just been published in Insect. Here we use an innovatively designed novel glass chamber to analyse the volatile organic compounds released by the Mupli beetle.

 

Mohammed, S.; Shameer, K. S.; Hesselberg, T. and Rafeeq, K.U.M.A. (2026). Volatile organic compounds from an indoor pest, Luprops tristis, collected by a novel glass chamber and their implications for human health. Insects 17, 617. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects17060617

 

Abstract

Insects secrete volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for various reasons, such as intra- or inter-species communication, attracting mates, or repelling predators. The volatiles from indoor insect pests, e.g., phenolic secretions, can impact inhabitants in various ways, causing allergies, skin and eye irritations, etc. The Mupli beetle (Luprops tristis Fabricius, 1801) is one such nuisance pest that aggregates in great numbers in indoor spaces, especially near rubber plantations in tropical African and Asian countries. This study aimed to understand the whole-body volatilome of L. tristis, comprising the first detailed study of volatiles in this insect, particularly under aggregation and laboratory conditions. Whole-body VOCs were collected from sets of 500 and 1000 beetles at different time intervals and analysed by solvent-assisted desorption followed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Compounds released by the Mupli beetle, such as 1-Octadecanesulphonyl chloride, Decane-1,1′-oxybis-, n-Nonadecanol-1 and n-Heptadecanol-1, are reported in the literature to be allergens that cause allergic reactions such as skin and eye irritations in humans. This understanding may indicate the possible reasons for the allergic reactions in people living in these insect-inhabited indoor spaces. We also report and describe the design and development of an economically feasible glass chamber for the dynamic headspace collection of volatiles released by these beetles.