Apparent transgenerational effects of host plant in the leaf beetle Ophraella notulata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

• Published in: Oecologia Vol. 96; no. 3; pp. 365 - 372
• Main Authors: Futuyma, D.J. (State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook (USA). Dept. of Ecology and Evolution), Herrmann, C, Milstein, S, Keese, M.C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Springer-Verlag 01-12-1993; Springer
• Subjects: AMBROSIA; Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Animal ethology; Biological and medical sciences; CHRYSOMELIDAE; Coleoptera; COMPOSITAE; DESCENDANCE; Female animals; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Herbivory; Host plants; Host selection; Insect genetics; Insect larvae; Invertebrates; Iva frutescens; Larvae; Male animals; Maternal effect; Mating behavior; OVIPOSICION; Oviposition; Paternal effect; PONTE; PROGENIE; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; RELACIONES HUESPED PARASITO; RELATION HOTE PARASITE; Chrysomelidae; Feeding behavior; Coleoptera; Insecta; Compositae; Host plant selection; Phytophagous; Animal plant relation; Arthropoda; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Paternal effect; Spermatophyta; Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Maternal effect; Invertebrata; Host selection; Herbivory
• ISSN: 0029-8549; 1432-1939
• DOI: 10.1007/BF00317507

The natural host of Ophraella notulata is Iva fructescens (Asteraceae); its close relative feeds on a related plant, Ambrosia artemisiifolia. Beetles on both plants were reared, obtained progeny from the four possible crosses (two sexes X two parental hosts), and reared the progeny on both plant species. Survival to the imaginal stage of progeny reared on Iva varied with both maternal and paternal host. Hatchling feeding response to both plants showed a maternal host X paternal host interaction. Consumption of Ambrosia by adult beetles was, counter to expectation, higher for progeny of Iva-reared males than Ambrosia-reared males. Oviposition response, although based on too few data to be definitive, was peculiar: parental host did not affect oviposition on Ambrosia; on Iva daughters of Iva-reared males laid significantly more eggs than did daughters of Ambrosia-reared males, but only if they had been reared on Iva; those reared on Ambrosia displayed the reverse pattern. Discussion of the possibility that nongenetic paternal transmission of host plant effects may explain these results, offering a somewhat uncomfortable hypothesis of selection as a preferable explanation. An important outcome of the experiment is that it provided no evidence of maternal effects of host plant on offspring feeding or oviposition.