Orientation mechanisms and sensory organs involved in host location in a dipteran parasitoid larva

Crespo, José E.; Lazzari, Cláudio R.; Castelo, Marcela K.

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2010.11.010

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…It can also be extended to analyze orientation behavior in other sensory landscapes such as humidity, gravity, or simply foraging strategies in homogeneous sensory landscapes. Finally, SOS can be applied to monitor a wide range of organisms from Planarian [46] and marine zooplankton [47] to larvae from other species [48], fishes and mice. We hope that novel ways of measuring and analyzing animal behavior will contribute to the development of new concepts, theories and principles about how neurons process sensory information to produce coordinated motor responses [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors

et al. 2012

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BackgroundThe nervous functions of an organism are primarily reflected in the behavior it is capable of. Measuring behavior quantitatively, at high-resolution and in an automated fashion provides valuable information about the underlying neural circuit computation. Accordingly, computer-vision applications for animal tracking are becoming a key complementary toolkit to genetic, molecular and electrophysiological characterization in systems neuroscience.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe present Sensory Orientation Software (SOS) to measure behavior and infer sensory experience correlates. SOS is a simple and versatile system to track body posture and motion of single animals in two-dimensional environments. In the presence of a sensory landscape, tracking the trajectory of the animal's sensors and its postural evolution provides a quantitative framework to study sensorimotor integration. To illustrate the utility of SOS, we examine the orientation behavior of fruit fly larvae in response to odor, temperature and light gradients. We show that SOS is suitable to carry out high-resolution behavioral tracking for a wide range of organisms including flatworms, fishes and mice.Conclusions/SignificanceOur work contributes to the growing repertoire of behavioral analysis tools for collecting rich and fine-grained data to draw and test hypothesis about the functioning of the nervous system. By providing open-access to our code and documenting the software design, we aim to encourage the adaptation of SOS by a wide community of non-specialists to their particular model organism and questions of interest.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors

et al. 2012

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“…Thus, to achieve most efficient phototaxis the animals integrate a combination of different navigational strategies, which are based on temporal and/or spatial information processing. To our knowledge this is a novelty in larval taxes, since previous findings support that thermotaxis and chemotaxis seem to be based uniquely on temporal information 3 – 5 , 8 , 30 , 34 . Interestingly, adult flies phototaxis is proposed to be based solely on spatial cues 35 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Dedicated photoreceptor pathways in Drosophila larvae mediate navigation by processing either spatial or temporal cues

et al. 2018

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To integrate changing environmental cues with high spatial and temporal resolution is critical for animals to orient themselves. Drosophila larvae show an effective motor program to navigate away from light sources. How the larval visual circuit processes light stimuli to control navigational decision remains unknown. The larval visual system is composed of two sensory input channels, Rhodopsin5 (Rh5) and Rhodopsin6 (Rh6) expressing photoreceptors (PRs). We here characterize how spatial and temporal information are used to control navigation. Rh6-PRs are required to perceive temporal changes of light intensity during head casts, while Rh5-PRs are required to control behaviors that allow navigation in response to spatial cues. We characterize how distinct behaviors are modulated and identify parallel acting and converging features of the visual circuit. Functional features of the larval visual circuit highlight the principle of how early in a sensory circuit distinct behaviors may be computed by partly overlapping sensory pathways.

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“…Another possible explanation involves saturation of chemoreceptor structures. Crespo et al (2011) suggested that M. ruficauda larva orientates by means of klinotaxis by the successive comparison of stimulus concentration during the insect movement. If the parasitoid's chemoreceptors were saturated, there is an impossibility to detect and to orient through the odour gradient.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Host specificity in the host-seeking larva of the dipteran parasitoidMallophora ruficaudaand the influence of age on parasitism decisions

Barrantes

Castelo

2014

Bull. Entomol. Res.

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Larvae of the robber fly Mallophora ruficauda are ectoparasitoids of white grubs and adults are an important apiculture pest in Argentina. Females oviposit on tall grasses and the second instar larva actively searches and locates hosts. There are nine potential hosts in the distribution area of this parasitoid and Cyclocephala signaticollis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is the most parasitized in the field. However, M. ruficauda has a certain degree of behavioural flexibility towards different host species, and not being a strict specialist. The conditions under which the parasitoid orientates and accepts different hosts' species are unknown. We studied the host specificity of M. ruficauda towards three species of Cyclocephala genus and we determined whether this specificity depends on larval age. We also evaluated whether larva orientation towards Cyclocephala species changes with chemical cue concentration. We assessed host specificity measuring the orientation and acceptance behaviours towards kairomones extracts and live individuals of Cyclocephala species using M. ruficauda larvae of low and high life expectancy (i.e., young and aged second instar larvae). We observed that young larvae orientated only towards C. signaticollis chemical stimulus, whereas aged larvae orientated also towards C. modesta, and the same was observed with increasing stimuli's concentration. Both young and aged M. ruficauda larvae orientate towards live C. signaticollis and C. putrida species and rejected C. modesta. Also, we found that larvae accepted all Cyclocephala hosts. In conclusion, our results indicate that specificity in the laboratory, observed through host orientation and host acceptance behaviours, depends not only on the availability of host species, but also on the nature of the host's stimuli combined with parasitoid age.

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Orientation mechanisms and sensory organs involved in host location in a dipteran parasitoid larva

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors

Automated Tracking of Animal Posture and Movement during Exploration and Sensory Orientation Behaviors

Dedicated photoreceptor pathways in Drosophila larvae mediate navigation by processing either spatial or temporal cues

Host specificity in the host-seeking larva of the dipteran parasitoidMallophora ruficaudaand the influence of age on parasitism decisions

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