Search results for "chemical ecology"

Chemical ecology meets conservation biological control: identifying plant volatiles as predictors of floral resource suitability for an egg parasitoi…

2016

Conservation biological control aims to enhance natural enemy populations in crop habitats, e.g. by providing flowering plants as food resources. Suitable flower species must enhance the survival and fecundity of natural enemies but in addition they also need to be highly attractive and thus frequently visited. To date, few examples exist that have considered both criteria. In this study, we tested the effects of the flowering plants alyssum (Lobularia maritima), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), French marigold (Tagetes patula) and sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) on the fecundity and olfactory attractiveness of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis, an important biological control agent of …

Only Females Oviposit: Chemical Discrimination of Adult Stink Bug Sex by the Egg Parasitoid Trissolcus japonicus

2021

Egg parasitoids foraging for suitable hosts scattered in the environment rely mainly on chemical cues. Elucidating the chemical ecology of natural enemies is important in the development of effective and successful strategies for conservation biological control. In this context, the host cuticular hydrocarbons, which are exploited by several species of egg parasitoids as contact kairomones, could be used to retain them by providing information about the presence and the sex of adults of the target species: sex is important because only females of the host species lay the eggs that can be subsequently utilized for parasitoid reproduction. However, the chemical basis of host sex discriminatio…

Semiochemical exploitation of host-associated cues by seven Melittobia parasitoid species : Behavioral and phylogenetic implications

2018

Chemical compounds (infochemicals or semiochemicals) play an important role both in intra-specific and inter-specific communication. For example, chemical cues appear to play a key role in the host selection process adopted by insect parasitoids. In recent years significant advances have been made in order to understand the chemical ecology of insect parasitoids. However, little information is available about the evolution of semiochemical use in the host location process of insect parasitoids. Here we investigated the strategy adopted by seven closely related parasitoid species in the genus Melittobia when foraging for four different suitable hosts. By using an integrated approach that com…

De novo biosynthesis of simple aromatic compounds by an arthropod ( Archegozetes longisetosus )

2020

The ability to synthesize simple aromatic compounds is well known from bacteria, fungi and plants, which all share an exclusive biosynthetic route—the shikimic acid pathway. Some of these organisms further evolved the polyketide pathway to form core benzenoids via a head-to-tail condensation of polyketide precursors. Arthropods supposedly lack the ability to synthesize aromatics and instead rely on aromatic amino acids acquired from food, or from symbiotic microorganisms. The few studies purportedly showing de novo biosynthesis via the polyketide synthase (PKS) pathway failed to exclude endosymbiotic bacteria, so their results are inconclusive. We investigated the biosynthesis of aromatic …

Interactions between oxidative stress and attractiveness to mates and individual mate choice in the beetle Tenebrio molitor

2020

The role of plant volatiles in prediction of floral resource suitability: chemical ecology to enhance conservation biological control.

2015

Plants emit substantial amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which represent a decisive communication channel, governing essential decisions insect have to make, such as choice of food. Understanding these interactions is critically important in Habitat Management and in a broader view in Conservation Biological Control. Suitable flower species must enhance the survival and fecundity of natural enemies but in addition they also need to be highly attractive and thus frequently visited. To date few examples exist that have considered both criteria. In this study we tested the effects of the flowering plants alyssum (Lobularia maritima), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), French marigol…

Pheromones and Chemical Ecology of Dispersal and Foraging in Termites

2010

Pheromones play a crucial role in the ecology of dispersal and foraging in termites. Sex-pairing pheromones possess a double role of long-range attraction to unite sexual partners and a short-range or contact attraction to maintain the pair during the tandem behaviour. Sex-pairing pheromones most often comprise a single compound capable of eliciting both behavioural effects. They appear very conservative in their evolution, and their role in the reproductive isolation of sympatric species greatly varies according to species. Species-specific sex-pairing pheromones consist of different major compounds or of a common major compound with species-specific minor components. Foraging is a collect…

Applied Chemical Ecology to Enhance Insect Parasitoid Efficacy in the Biological Control of Crop Pests

2018

The field application of semiochemicals, used by parasitoids to find mates and to locate their hosts, is a promising environmentally sustainable and highly specific pest control strategy and an attractive alternative to the use of pesticides. In this chapter, we first examine research progress dealing with the effect of semiochemical cues on parasitoid foraging strategy. In the second part, we review the possible field applications of these chemical cues to enhance pest control strategies, either through direct pest control or by manipulating parasitoid behaviour. We then consider novel approaches, such as the “attract and reward” strategy, combining semiochemical application and habitat ma…

2015

Insects encounter a vast repertoire of chemicals in their natural environment, which can signal positive stimuli like the presence of a food source, a potential mate, or a suitable oviposition site as well as negative stimuli such as competitors, predators, or toxic substances reflecting danger. The presence of specialized chemoreceptors like taste and olfactory receptors allow animals to detect chemicals at short and long distances and accordingly, trigger proper behaviors towards these stimuli. Since the first description of olfactory and taste receptors in Drosophila fifteen years ago, our knowledge on the identity, properties, and function of specific chemoreceptors has increased expone…

Volatile Drosophila cuticular pheromones are affected by social but not sexual experience.

2012

International audience; Recognition of conspecifics and mates is based on a variety of sensory cues that are specific to the species, sex and social status of each individual. The courtship and mating activity of Drosophila melanogaster flies is thought to depend on the olfactory perception of a male-specific volatile pheromone, cis-vaccenyl acetate (cVA), and the gustatory perception of cuticular hydrocarbons (CHs), some of which are sexually dimorphic. Using two complementary sampling methods (headspace Solid Phase Micro-Extraction [SPME] and solvent extraction) coupled with GC-MS analysis, we measured the dispersion of pheromonal CHs in the air and on the substrate around the fly. We als…