spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online May 29, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 1825-1831 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.028308
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Salerno, G.
Right arrow Articles by Colazza, S.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Salerno, G.
Right arrow Articles by Colazza, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

A finely tuned strategy adopted by an egg parasitoid to exploit chemical traces from host adults

G. Salerno1,*, F. Frati1, E. Conti1, C. De Pasquale2, E. Peri3 and S. Colazza3

1 Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali, Università di Perugia, Italy
2 Dipartimento di I.T.A.F., Università di Palermo, Italy
3 Dipartimento di S.En.Fi.Mi.Zo., Section of Acarology, Entomology and Zoology, Università di Palermo, Italy

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: salerno{at}unipg.it)

Accepted 28 March 2009

Scelionid egg parasitoids can obtain reliable information on the presence of host eggs by discriminating host gender on the basis of chemical footprints of their co-evolved hosts, with a strong preference for the footprint left by host females. Based on the concept of dietary specialization and infochemical use in natural enemies, it could be predicted that host gender discrimination in specialist species belonging to the genus Trissolcus is further tuned to specific cues from distinctive chemical traces left by host females as a consequence of copulation and/or oviposition. To test this hypothesis we used the system Murgantia histrionica – Trissolcus brochymenae. Our results showed that the females of the egg parasitoid search intensely on chemical traces left on the substrate by host females that had mated but had not yet laid host eggs compared with the chemical traces left by virgin or parous host females. This preference for mated females that had not yet laid host eggs was strictly related to the transfer of sperm and associated substances from males to females during copulation. The compounds that mediated the arrestment response of T. brochymenae females are part of the host cuticle, and those that play a role as gender-specific cues seemed to be present in the legs of the host adult. This result represents an interesting new piece of information regarding the exploitation of indirect host-related cues by egg parasitoids. It reveals the existence of a finely tuned strategy that allows the parasitoid to find newly laid host eggs, as chemical traces left by mated host females that have not yet laid eggs are strongly correlated with the moment of oviposition.

Key words: Trissolcus brochymenae, Murgantia histrionica, egg parasitoid, indirect host-related cues, arrestment response


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2009