Evidence for trichromacy in the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Kirchner, Sascha; Döring, Thomas; Saucke, Helmut

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2005.07.002

Cited by 86 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The green peach aphid (Myzus persicae Sulzer, Hemiptera: Aphididae) is the only aphid species that has been physiologically tested for spectral sensitivity so far (Kirchner et al 2005), using extracellular recordings (ERG). The overall peak sensitivity of the eye was found at 530 nm.…”

Section: The Physiological Basis For the Perception Of Colours In Aphidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dö ring and Skorupski 2007). The sensitivity functions S R (k) of the three photoreceptors are modelled according to Stavenga et al (1993), with the peak sensitivities of the green and the UV receptor derived from Kirchner et al (2005) (see above) and the blue receptor sensitivity peak (which has been determined to lie between 440 nm and 480 nm) set to 450 nm. For each leaf, the corresponding excitations of the modelled UV, blue and green receptors (Fig.…”

Section: The Physiological Basis For the Perception Of Colours In Aphidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual ecology of aphids—a critical review on the role of colours in host finding

Döring

Chittka

2007

Arthropod-Plant Interactions

197

222

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We review the rich literature on behavioural responses of aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) to stimuli of different colours. Only in one species there are adequate physiological data on spectral sensitivity to explain behaviour crisply in mechanistic terms. Because of the great interest in aphid responses to coloured targets from an evolutionary, ecological and applied perspective, there is a substantial need to expand these studies to more species of aphids, and to quantify spectral properties of stimuli rigorously. We show that aphid responses to colours, at least for some species, are likely based on a specific colour opponency mechanism, with positive input from the green domain of the spectrum and negative input from the blue and/ or UV region. We further demonstrate that the usual yellow preference of aphids encountered in field experiments is not a true colour preference but involves additional brightness effects. We discuss the implications for agriculture and sensory ecology, with special respect to the recent debate on autumn leaf colouration. We illustrate that recent evolutionary theories concerning aphid-tree interactions imply far-reaching assumptions on aphid responses to colours that are not likely to hold. Finally we also discuss the implications for developing and optimising strategies of aphid control and monitoring.

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Section: The Physiological Basis For the Perception Of Colours In Aphidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Physiological Basis For the Perception Of Colours In Aphidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual ecology of aphids—a critical review on the role of colours in host finding

Döring

Chittka

2007

Arthropod-Plant Interactions

197

222

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“…Although it has not been as clearly demonstrated as with honeybees using psychophysics and electrophysiology (von Frisch, 1914;Daumer, 1956;Von Helversen, 1972;Peitsch et al, 1992), early studies demonstrated that aphids do exhibit intensity-independent behaviors in response to specific wavelengths (Moericke, 1955b) and are likely to possess a color-opponent mechanism (Moericke, 1950;Chittka and Döring, 2007) which are prerequisites for color vision (Menzel, 1979;Kelber et al, 2003). Moreover, recent works involving electrophysiological techniques have confirmed the existence of three photoreceptor types in at least two species of aphids (Kirchner et al, 2005;Döring et al, 2011). As a consequence, although it has not been convincingly demonstrated, aphids are suspected to have color vision .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Related but not alike: not all Hemiptera are attracted to yellow

2014

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Most innate responses to color stimuli lead herbivorous insects to orient to "green" and "yellow" surfaces. Early research showed that aphid orientation to plants is influenced by foliar pigments and leads them to alight on leaves of a specific physiological state regardless of whether or not it is their actual host. In this study, we quantified the color preferences of four psyllids specialized on young to recently expanded leaves of different Eucalyptus hosts presenting distinct between (inter-specific) and within canopy (ontogenic) optical characteristics. Color preferences of Ctenarytaina eucalypti and C. bipartita were similar to those observed in aphids with more frequent selection of yellow and green stimuli, consistent with the coloration of their host leaves. However, attraction of Anoeconeossa bundoorensis and Glycaspis brimblecombei to a red stimulus contrasts strongly with the literature for hemipteran and herbivorous insects generally for which attraction to red is peculiar. Interestingly, both red-attracted species occur on the same host eucalypt, which expresses anthocyanic (red) young leaves. Our experiments demonstrate that these two species are sensitive to long wavelength radiation. Behavioral responses and modeling of putative "aphid-like" photoreceptors were conducted to investigate whether achromatic vision mediates perception of "red." Our results do not provide strong evidence for an intensity-dependant type of attraction. Nevertheless, the current knowledge of photoreceptors in Hemiptera identifies the achromatic pathway as the most likely mechanism for detecting long wavelengths. Thus, our findings highlight the need for physiological work with Psylloidae to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for such atypical responses. We discuss the ecological implications of our work in relation to red foliar pigments in expanding leaves of perennial plants which differs greatly from the thoroughly studied aphid-autumnal leaves system involving senescing foliage.

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“…Using the aphid catch, spectral reflectance measurements of the colour traps and information on the sensory physiology of aphids (Kirchner et al 2005; Dö ring & Kirchner 2007), we were then able to build a simple mechanistic colourchoice model for these insects, which allows assessing the attractivity of any colour for landing aphids. By applying this model to a large number of tree leaf spectra of different colours, we could then assess the relative attractivity of red versus green tree leaves for aphids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autumn leaves seen through herbivore eyes

2008

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Why leaves of some trees turn red in autumn has puzzled biologists for decades, as just before leaf fall the pigments causing red coloration are newly synthesized. One idea to explain this apparently untimely investment is that red colour signals the tree's quality to herbivorous insects, particularly aphids. However, it is unclear whether red leaves are indeed less attractive to aphids than green leaves. Because aphids lack a red photoreceptor, it was conjectured that red leaves could even be indiscernable from green ones for these insects. Here we show, however, that the colour of autumnal tree leaves that appear red to humans are on average much less attractive to aphids than green leaves, whereas yellow leaves are much more attractive. We conclude that, while active avoidance of red leaves by aphids is unlikely, red coloration in autumn could still be a signal of the tree's quality, or alternatively serve to mask the over-attractive yellow that is unveiled when the green chlorophyll is recovered from senescing leaves. Our study shows that in sensory ecology, receiver physiology alone is not sufficient to reveal the whole picture. Instead, the combined analysis of behaviour and a large set of natural stimuli unexpectedly shows that animals lacking a red photoreceptor may be able to differentiate between red and green leaves.

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Evidence for trichromacy in the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulz.) (Hemiptera: Aphididae)

Cited by 86 publications

References 23 publications

Visual ecology of aphids—a critical review on the role of colours in host finding

Visual ecology of aphids—a critical review on the role of colours in host finding

Related but not alike: not all Hemiptera are attracted to yellow

Autumn leaves seen through herbivore eyes

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