Scalable synthesis of the pink gypsy moth Lymantria mathura sex pheromone (-)-mathuralure

Mathuralure (1) is the major sex pheromone component of the pink gypsy moth Lymantria mathura, a potentially devastating invasive species to North America. To support population monitoring of this moth, a gram-scale synthesis of (-)-mathuralure (1) was developed. This process relies on coupling an alkynyl lithium species with a chloroepoxide and provides access to the natural product in a 10% yield over 10 steps.