Talk:Exopheromone

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Thanks to whoever it was for the time to make this article. We can now expand on it. We need citations from Terence (I understand that might be difficult because he mostly talked). Also a search such as "interspecies pheromones" does give numerous results in databases such as Google Scholar; perhaps Terence just gave them a name. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C4:15B2:1100:BC07:441C:5A9D:8444 (talk) 14:18, 13 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Interspecies pheromones as discussed in the scientific literature (in a handful of studies, not "numerous") are only between species of the same genus, and so far they are only known to involve microorganisms (like yeast).
In any case, Terence mostly talked about this in his book Food of the Gods. What I find strange is that he did not seem to suggest coining the word, but talks as if he is borrowing it. Sadly, he does not name any source for that.
I do not have time to quote in the article itself (as I don't know how I'd do that), but I will copy-paste here for anyone interested:
″Alkaloids, including all the hallucinogens discussed here, are not inert end products in the plants in which they occur, but are in a dynamic state, fluctuating in both concentration and in their rate of metabolic decay. The role of these alkaloids in the chemistry of metabolism makes it clear that they are essential to the life and the survival strategy of the organism, but they are acting in ways that we do not yet understand.
One possibility is that some of these compounds may be exopheromones. Exopheromones are chemical messengers that do not act among the members of a single species, but instead, act across species lines, so that an individual influences members of a different species. Some exopheromones act in ways that allow a small group of individuals to affect a community or an entire biome.″