The Relevance of Background Odor in Resource Location by Insects: A Behavioral Approach

Schröder, Roland; Hilker, Monika

doi:10.1641/b580406

Cited by 214 publications

(186 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Plant volatile attractants for codling moth failed under certain cases in the field (Knight and Light, 2005). The failure of plant volatiles to attract insects to traps in our field experiments could be because the tested volatiles were already present in the environment at the time when lures were placed in the field, and the background cues may have masked odors from the lures (Schröder and Hilker, 2008). In the case of cinnamyl alcohol, habituation or lack of sensitivity may also explain the low response rate, since this volatile stands out prominently from the background during bloom in blueberry fields.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Identification and Field Evaluation of Attractants for the Cranberry Weevil, Anthonomus musculus Say

et al. 2011

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Studies were conducted to develop an attractant for the cranberry weevil, Anthonomus musculus, a pest of blueberry and cranberry flower buds and flowers in the northeastern United States. In previous studies, we showed that cinnamyl alcohol, the most abundant blueberry floral volatile, and the green leaf volatiles (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate and hexyl acetate, emitted from both flowers and flower buds, elicit strong antennal responses from A. musculus. Here, we found that cinnamyl alcohol did not increase capture of A. musculus adults on yellow sticky traps compared with unbaited controls; however, weevils were highly attracted to traps baited with the Anthonomus eugenii Cano aggregation pheromone, indicating that these congeners share common pheromone components. To identify the A. musculus aggregation pheromone, headspace volatiles were collected from adults feeding on blueberry or cranberry flower buds and analyzed by gas chromatographymass spectrometry. Three male-specific compounds were identified: (Z)-2-(3,3-dimethyl-cyclohexylidene) ethanol (Z grandlure II); (Z)-(3,3-dimethylcyclohexylidene) acetaldehyde (grandlure III); and (E)-(3,3-dimethylcyclohexylidene) acetaldehyde (grandlure IV). A fourth component, (E)-3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadien-1-ol (geraniol), was emitted in similar quantities by males and females. The emission rates of these volatiles were about 2.8, 1.8, 1.3, and 0.9 ng/adult/d, respectively. Field experiments in highbush blueberry (New Jersey) and cranberry (Massachusetts) examined the attraction of A. musculus to traps baited with the male-produced compounds and geraniol presented alone and combined with (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate and hexyl acetate, and to traps baited with the pheromones of A. eugenii and A. grandis. In both states and crops, traps baited with the A. musculus maleproduced compounds attracted the highest number of adults. Addition of the green leaf volatiles did not affect A. musculus attraction to its pheromone but skewed the sex ratio of the captured adults towards females. Although the role of plant volatiles in host-plant location by A. musculus is still unclear, our studies provide the first identification of the primary A. musculus aggregation pheromone components that can be used to monitor this pest in blueberry and cranberry pest management programs.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 85%

Identification and Field Evaluation of Attractants for the Cranberry Weevil, Anthonomus musculus Say

et al. 2011

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“…These studies illustrate, that optimal attraction requires the presence of a specific combination of compounds. Unfortunately, so far no general pattern could have been recognized that would help to determine which compounds reduce or enhance the attractiveness of odor sources to a foraging insect (reviewed by Schröder and Hilker 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strong Attraction of the Parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris Towards Minor Volatile Compounds of Maize

et al. 2009

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Plants infested with herbivorous arthropods emit complex blends of volatile compounds, which are used by several natural enemies as foraging cues. Despite detailed knowledge on the composition and amount of the emitted volatiles in many plant-herbivore systems, it remains largely unknown which compounds are essential for the attraction of natural enemies. In this study, we used a combination of different fractionation methods and olfactometer bioassays in order to examine the attractiveness of different compositions of volatile blends to females of the parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris. In a first step, we passed a volatile blend emitted by Spodoptera littoralis infested maize seedlings over a silica-containing filter tube and subsequently desorbed the volatiles that were retained by the silica filter (silica extract). The volatiles that broke through the silica filter were collected on and subsequently desorbed from a SuperQ filter (breakthrough). The silica extract was highly attractive to the wasps, whereas the breakthrough volatiles were not attractive. The silica extract was even more attractive than the extract that contained all herbivore-induced maize volatiles. Subsequently, we fractioned the silica extract by preparative gas-chromatography (GC) and by separating more polar from less polar compounds. In general, C. marginiventris preferred polar over non-polar compounds, but several fractions were attractive to the wasp, including one that contained compounds emitted in quantities below the detection threshold of the GC analysis. These results imply that the attractiveness of the volatile blend emitted by Spodopterainfested maize seedlings to C. marginiventris females is determined by a specific combination of attractive and repellent/masking compounds, including some that are emitted in very small amounts. Manipulating the emission of such minor compounds has the potential to greatly improve the attraction of certain parasitoids and enhance biological control of specific insect pests.

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“…The research on tritrophic interactions so far has mainly focused on isolated systems without including the effects of background volatiles (but see 21,38,39). Isoprene emission, also in transgenic isoprene-emitting Arabidopsis, strongly increases with temperature, reaching maximal rates around 40°C.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isoprene interferes with the attraction of bodyguards by herbaceous plants

Loivamäki¹,

Mumm²,

Dicke³

et al. 2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

132

102

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Isoprene is the most abundant volatile compound emitted by vegetation. It influences air chemistry and is part of plant defense against abiotic stresses. However, whether isoprene influences biotic interactions between plants and other organisms has not been investigated to date. Here we show a new effect of isoprene, namely its influence on interactions between plants and insects. Herbivory induces the release of plant volatiles that attract the herbivore's enemies, such as parasitic wasps, as a kind of bodyguard. We used transgenic isoprene-emitting Arabidopsis plants in behavioral, chemical, and electrophysiological studies to investigate the effects of isoprene on ecological interactions in 2 tritrophic systems. We demonstrate that isoprene is perceived by the chemoreceptors of the parasitic wasp Diadegma semiclausum and interferes with the attraction of this parasitic wasp to volatiles from herbivore-infested plants. We verified this repellent effect on D. semiclausum female wasps by adding external isoprene to the volatile blend of wild-type plants. In contrast, the antennae of the parasitic wasp Cotesia rubecula do not perceive isoprene and the behavior of this wasp was not altered by isoprene emission. In addition, the performance of the 2 examined lepidopteran herbivores (Pieris rapae and Plutella xylostella) was not affected by isoprene emission. Therefore, attraction of parasitic wasps to host-infested herbaceous plants in the neighborhood of high isoprene emitters, such as poplar or willow, may be hampered by the isoprene emission that repels plant bodyguards.Arabidopsis ͉ isoprene emission ͉ plant-insect interactions ͉ tritrophic interactions ͉ parasitoid P lants interact with their abiotic and biotic environments through volatile organic compounds, of which terpenes [isoprene (C 5 ), mono-(C 10 ), sesqui-(C 15 ), and homoterpenes (C 11 , C 16 )] form the most prominent group (1, 2). Global emission of the highly reactive hemiterpene isoprene is estimated to be 440-660 Tg carbon per year (3), which amounts to 44% of the overall nonmethane volatiles released from ecosystems. Some plants, mainly tree species (1), may even emit up to 15% of photosynthetically fixed carbon back to the atmosphere as isoprene (4). The compound may help the photosynthetic apparatus to recover from brief, high-temperature episodes (5). This effect was recently demonstrated with transgenic isoprene nonemitting poplar leaves in which gene expression of isoprene synthase (PcISPS) was knocked down (6). Isoprene is thought to act physically by stabilizing the thylakoid membranes at high temperatures (5) or by quenching reactive oxygen species, such as ozone, which can lead to membrane damage (7).Isoprene emission was first observed 51 years ago (8) and has been widely studied by atmospheric chemists and plant physiologists (5, 9). To our knowledge, a potential effect of isoprene on interactions between the emitting plants and other biota remains unexplored to date. Attack by insect herbivores results in the biosynthesis of a pla...

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The Relevance of Background Odor in Resource Location by Insects: A Behavioral Approach

Abstract: Insects live in a highly

Cited by 214 publications

References 75 publications

Identification and Field Evaluation of Attractants for the Cranberry Weevil, Anthonomus musculus Say

Identification and Field Evaluation of Attractants for the Cranberry Weevil, Anthonomus musculus Say

Strong Attraction of the Parasitoid Cotesia marginiventris Towards Minor Volatile Compounds of Maize

Isoprene interferes with the attraction of bodyguards by herbaceous plants

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