Larval parasitoid uses aggregation pheromone of adult hosts in foraging behaviour: a solution to the reliability-detectability problem

Parasitoids that forage for herbivorous hosts by using infochemicals may have a problem concerning the reliability and detectability of these stimuli: host stimuli are highly reliable but not very detectable at a distance, while stimuli from the host's food are very detectable but generally not...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Oecologia Vol. 93; no. 1; pp. 145 - 148
Main Authors:	Wiskerke, J.S.C. (Agricultural Univ. Wageningen (Netherlands). Dept. of Entomology), Dicke, M, Vet, L.E.M
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Berlin Springer-Verlag 01-02-1993 Springer
Subjects:	Aggregation Animal ethology Biological and medical sciences COMPORTEMENT ALIMENTAIRE Diptera DROSOPHILA Drosophilidae EUCOILIDAE Female animals FEROMONAS Foraging Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology HABITOS ALIMENTARIOS Hymenoptera Infochemicals Insect larvae Invertebrates Kairomone Laboratorium voor Entomologie Laboratory of Entomology LARVAS LARVE LEPTOPILINA Leptopilina heterotoma Mating behavior Microhabitats Parasite hosts Parasitoids PHEROMONE Pheromones Protozoa. Invertebrata Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Chemical communication Host parasite relation Animal communication Interspecific communication Insecta Kairomone Drosophilidae Drosophila simulans Host selection Parasitoid Eucoilidae Larva Arthropoda Aggregation pheromone Hymenoptera Invertebrata Drosophila melanogaster Diptera Chemical stimulus Leptopilina heterotoma Infochemicals Drosophila
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Summary:	Parasitoids that forage for herbivorous hosts by using infochemicals may have a problem concerning the reliability and detectability of these stimuli: host stimuli are highly reliable but not very detectable at a distance, while stimuli from the host's food are very detectable but generally not very reliable in indicating host presence. One solution to this problem is to learn to link highly detectable stimuli to reliable but not very detectable stimuli. Ample knowledge is available on how associative learning aids foraging parasitoids in the location of suitable micro-habitats. However, in this paper another solution to the reliability-detectability problem is reported on and evidence for an essential, but as yet overlooked, aspect of Drosophila parasitoid ecology is presented. For the first time it is shown that a parasitoid of Drosophila larvae spies on the communication system of adult Drosophila flies to locate potential host sites: naive parasitoids strongly respond to a volatile aggregation pheremone that is deposited in the oviposition site by recently mated female flies. Thus, the parasitoides resort to using highly detectable information from a host stage different from the one under attack (i.e. infochemical detour). The function and ecological implications of these findings are discussed.
Bibliography:	93K0116 H10 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:	0029-8549 1432-1939
DOI:	10.1007/BF00321204