Host Plant Influences on Sex Pheromone Behavior of Phytophagous Insects

Abstract

The sexual behavior of phytophagous insects is often integrated in a variety of ways with their host plants. This integration may be manifested as effects or influences of host plants on insect physiology and behavior, including sex pheromone communication, that reflect strategies by insects to optimize mating and reproduction. Certain insects sequester or otherwise acquire host plant compounds and use them as sex pheromones or sex pheromone precursors. Other insects produce or release sex pheromones in response to particular host plant cues. Chemicals from host plants often synergize or otherwise enhance insect responses to sex pheromones. By these means, host plants may be used by insects to regulate or mediate sexual communication. For many species of insects, host plant influences on insect sex pheromone communication may be important aspects of the formation of feeding and mating aggregations, of insect strategies to locate both hosts and mates, of behavioral reproductive isolation among sibling species, and of the regulation of reproduction to coincide with the availability of food and oviposition sites. Knowledge of these relationships is critical to understanding many different areas of the behavioral ecology of plant-feeding insects.

Host plant volatiles serve to increase the response of male European grape berry moths, Eupoecilia ambiguella, to their sex pheromone

“…Females call and oviposit on host plants (Landolt and Phillips 1997;Schoonhoven et al 2005) and so can be located with a high probability at such places. Males could arguably be at mating sites before females start calling by following host plant cues.…”

“…Insects perceive a range of volatile products emitted by plants that serve them as signals in the search for food, oviposition sites and for shelter against desiccation and enemies (Syed and Guerin 2004; Schoonhoven et al 2005). Host plant products can also serve phytophagous insects to locate rendezvous sites for mating (Landolt and Phillips 1997;Reddy and Guerrero 2004) whereby the probability to encounter the opposite sex may be enhanced. In this manner, host plant choice and mate choice are tightly linked.…”

“…To date, numerous studies have reported on interactions between insect pheromones and host plant chemicals (for a review see Landolt and Phillips 1997). In one of the Wrst studies Rahn (1968) showed that in the leek moth, Acrolepiopsis assectella, female-baited traps are most eYcient to recapture released males in the presence of the host plant than with non host plants.…”

Plant Volatiles Enhance Behavioral Responses of Grapevine Moth Males, Lobesia botrana to Sex Pheromone

“…Host-plant volatiles can enhance both pheromone production and behavioral responses to pheromones in phytophagous insects (reviewed by Landolt and Phillips, 1997). Host-plant attractants have been extensively studied for Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) females (Tasin et al, 2006(Tasin et al, , 2007Anfora et al, 2009), but work focusing on the effects of plant volatiles on the behavior of L. botrana males is sparse.…”

Flutuação populacional e distribuição de Sitophilus zeamais em pomares de pessegueiro e macieira

“…Nos gorgulhos, esse comportamento foi observado para S. oryzae, que só libera seu feromônio de agregação na presença do substrato alimentar (Landolt & Phillips, 1997). Além disso, estudos conduzidos em laboratório têm mostrado que voláteis emitidos por grãos hospedeiros são atrativos a S. zeamais (Ukeh et al, 2010).…”