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Flying Slower: Floor Pattern Object Size Affects Orthokinetic Responses During Moth Flight to Sex Pheromone

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Abstract

Previous studies with Oriental Fruit Moth (OFM, Grapholita molesta) and Heliothis virescens males flying upwind along a pheromone plume showed that they increased their upwind flight speed as they flew higher above striped floor patterns and, for OFM, to a similar degree over dotted floor patterns. This response pattern has been demonstrated in another moth species, Epiphyas postvittana and in a beetle, Prostephanus truncatus. In all cases the role played by the change in angular size of the wind tunnel’s ventral floor pattern was not assessed. In the present study we specifically addressed this question with a systematic examination of moths’ flight control over different sizes of transverse stripes and dot patterns ranging down by halves from 5 to 0.625 cm and a blank white floor as a control, and showed that OFM males fly faster upwind and along their flight paths over floor patterns of decreasing size. Increased speeds over striped patterns were evident as stripe width decreased below 2.5 cm, whereas moths did not increase their flight speed over dot patterns until dot size had decreased to less than 1.25 cm. Another flight component that the moths can actively control, their course angles, was unchanged above both patterns, except for moths flying over 5 cm stripes. Turning frequency and interturn distances were mostly unchanged or offset each other, negating any effects on upwind progress. As in an earlier study examining flight speeds at three heights above floor patterns of three densities, the moths’ changes in speed appear to be exclusively affected by changes in their orthokinetic response to the size of the floor pattern objects.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Sarah Hofer for assistance in rearing insects, making the floor patterns and digitizing the moth tracks. This work was funded in part by funds from the California Pistachio Research Board.

Mention of trade names or commercial products in this article is solely for the purpose of providing specific information and does not imply recommendations or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Cole Gilbert

  2. USDA, Agricultural Research Service, San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center, Commodity Protection and Quality, 9611 S. Riverbend Avenue, Parlier, CA, 93648, USA

    Lodewyk P. S. Kuenen & Joel Siegel

Authors
  1. Lodewyk P. S. Kuenen
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  2. Cole Gilbert
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  3. Joel Siegel
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Correspondence to Lodewyk P. S. Kuenen.

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Kuenen, L.P.S., Gilbert, C. & Siegel, J. Flying Slower: Floor Pattern Object Size Affects Orthokinetic Responses During Moth Flight to Sex Pheromone. J Insect Behav 27, 581–592 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-014-9450-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-014-9450-8

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