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Associative learning for danger avoidance nullifies innate positive chemotaxis to host olfactory stimuli in a parasitic wasp

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Abstract

Animals rely on associative learning for a wide range of purposes, including danger avoidance. This has been demonstrated for several insects, including cockroaches, mosquitoes, drosophilid flies, paper wasps, stingless bees, bumblebees and honeybees, but less is known for parasitic wasps. We tested the ability of Psyttalia concolor (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) females to associate different dosages of two innately attractive host-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs), ethyl octanoate and decanal, with danger (electric shocks). We conducted an associative treatment involving odours and shocks and two non-associative controls involving shocks but not odours and odours but not shocks. In shock-only and odour-only trained wasps, females preferred on HIPV-treated than on blank discs. In associative-trained wasps, however, P. concolor’s innate positive chemotaxis for HIPVs was nullified (lowest HIPV dosage tested) or reversed (highest HIPV dosage tested). This is the first report of associative learning of olfactory cues for danger avoidance in parasitic wasps, showing that the effects of learning can override innate positive chemotaxes.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Elisa Rigosi (CiMeC, Trento, Italy) and three anonymous reviewers for the comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are grateful to Donato Romano (University of Pisa) for the assistance during the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Insect Behaviour Group, Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, via del Borghetto 80, 56124, Pisa, Italy

    Giovanni Benelli, Giulia Giunti, Serena Geri & Angelo Canale

  2. The BioRobotics Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, Pontedera, 56025, Pisa, Italy

    Cesare Stefanini

  3. Kauai Agricultural Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 7370 Kuamo’o Road, Kapaa, HI, 97646, USA

    Russell H. Messing

Authors
  1. Giovanni Benelli
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  2. Cesare Stefanini
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  3. Giulia Giunti
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  4. Serena Geri
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  5. Russell H. Messing
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  6. Angelo Canale
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Correspondence to Giovanni Benelli.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Benelli, G., Stefanini, C., Giunti, G. et al. Associative learning for danger avoidance nullifies innate positive chemotaxis to host olfactory stimuli in a parasitic wasp. Naturwissenschaften 101, 753–757 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1210-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-014-1210-2

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