Abstract
Using light-emitting diode spotlights, we examined the responses of Cotesia vestalis, a parasitoid of diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella larvae, with different hunger level to different chromatic cues. Naïve satiated female wasps showed no significant preference for either green, yellow, orange, or red spotlighted areas over a control area with background fluorescent light. When starved for 2 h, female wasps preferred yellow and green light over the control area, but not orange or red light. We also tested the effects of DBM-larvae-induced cabbage-plant volatiles, which attract female wasps, on wasp responses to green versus yellow light. In control experiments with no plant volatiles, starved wasps showed no color preference. However, when synthetic volatiles were present, the wasps preferred green over yellow light. We concluded that both hunger level and herbivore-induced plant volatiles were important factors affecting the response of parasitic wasps to light of different color.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Koji Yamamura (NIAES) for his comments on statistical analyses. This research was financially supported in part by the Global Center of Excellence Program “Formation of a Strategic 338 Base for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Research: from Genome to Ecosystem” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan; a Core-to-Core project from the Japan Science and Technology Agency; a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 24780049); and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S, B) from MEXT, Japan (Nos 19101009, 22380038).
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Uefune, M., Kugimiya, S., Shimoda, T. et al. Starvation and herbivore-induced plant volatiles affect the color preferences of parasitic wasps. BioControl 58, 187–193 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-012-9483-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-012-9483-x