The females release a male attractant pheromone from their hind legs. These compounds also act as an attractant for the black bean aphid, Aphis fabae 34 . Males are only weakly attracted by this mixture, which suggests that further components are required for full activity. The lactol 12 alone is the sex pheromone of the damson-hop aphid, Phorodon humuli 36 . It is very common for closely phylogenically related species to use mixtures with the same components, but with different ratios or extra components which give species specificity and maintain reproductive isolation.
Catmint is a perennial plant with soft grey or green leaves, which are ideal for aphid attack.
It is possible that nepetalactone 11 is released to attract aphid parasitoids. It is conceivable that catmint seeds are dispersed from the cats' coat and that the advantage of this mechanism of dispersal is sufficient to compensate for the damage done to the plant by cats. Cats have an array of marking glands which have been barely investigated.