Fecal Deployment: An Alternative Way of Defensive Host Plant Cardenolide Use by Lilioceris merdigera Larvae
Michael Baum,
Susanne Dobler
Abstract:The brilliant red Lilioceris merdigera (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae) can spend its entire life cycle on the cardenolide-containing plant Convallaria majalis (lily of the valley) and forms stable populations on this host. Yet, in contrast to many other insects on cardenolide-containing plants L. merdigera does not sequester these plant toxins in the body but rather both adult beetles and larvae eliminate ingested cardenolides with the feces. Tracer feeding experiments showed that this holds true for radioactively… Show more
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