Two-step learning involved in acquiring olfactory preferences for plant volatiles by parasitic wasps

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• 作者：Hiroyuki Takemoto^a ; ¹ ; Wilf Powell^b ; John Pickett^b ; Yooichi Kainoh^c ; Junji Takabayashi^a ; ^{junji@ecology.kyoto-u.ac.jp}
• 关键词：Aphidius ervi ; herbivore-induced plant volatile ; host-searching behaviour ; olfactory learning ; parasitic wasp
• 刊名：Animal Behaviour
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：77_00033472
• 类别：psy
• 出版时间：June, 2012
• 卷：83
• 期：6
• 页码：1491-1496
• 文件大小：561 K

摘要

Aphidius ervi is a parasitic wasp of several aphid species, including Acyrthosiphon pisum. This wasp is used as a biological control agent of its host aphid species in many regions of the world. Compared with responses to volatiles from intact plants, A.聽ervi females respond to host-infested plant volatiles but not to nonhost-infested plant volatiles. Furthermore, we previously demonstrated that A.聽ervi preferred host aphid-infested plant volatiles to volatiles from intact plants only when they had been exposed to the host aphid-infested plant volatiles during their developmental stages (larval to emergence stages). The results suggested that A.聽ervi females learn the host-infested volatiles during their development and we tested this hypothesis in this study. Learning occurred in two steps: during the late larval to prepupal stages (the first learning stage) and during adult emergence (the second learning stage). Furthermore, we聽observed specificity to the host plant volatiles in the two-step learning. The preference for host-infested plant volatiles was modified when the wasps had been exposed to host aphid-infested plant volatiles in the first stage and then exposed to nonhost aphid-infested plant volatiles in the second stage. When they were exposed to nonhost aphid-infested plant volatiles in the first stage, wasp preference for volatiles was not detected, irrespective of their exposure to either host or nonhost aphid-infested plants in the second stage. The ecological functions of the two-step learning are discussed.